As a Brit watching Woody Allen’s latest European muse, the first thing that springs to mind is Only Fools’ Nicholas Lyndhurst’s time-travelling sitcom Goodnight Sweetheart about an accidental time traveller who discovers a time portal, allowing him to travel between the London of the 1990s and the same area during the Second World War. Time travel captures the imagination and has fascinated audiences, from Back To The Future to Quantum Leap. For this reason alone, Allen’s new romantic comedy has an instant awe – and not just as a result of the setting being the upmarket parts and cultural haunts of gay Paris.
An American family travel to Paris on business, but the engaged couple of the party, Gil (Owen Wilson) and Inez (Rachel McAdams), find the culture and lifestyle starting to interfere with real life, and they are forced to confront the illusion that a life different from their own is better.
Midnight In Paris is by far one of the best Allen films out for a couple of years. The film-maker has dabbled in other major cities around the world, such as Barcelona and London, with little charm or lasting impression. What Allen taps into in this is the natural mystique of Paris. Hence the rest of the tale feels more magical.
The charming trademark neurosis of Allen’s characters is back in full force – his 2010 film, You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, was just too self-absorbed and self-commiserating to allow audiences to really care for the characters they were watching. In this, Wilson is an absolute delight in one of his best roles for years as troubled writer Gil, who pines for past creative eras because he longs for a creative eureka moment. His ‘episodes’ with literary, artistic and film-making historical legends is incredibly quaint and light-hearted, and stirs a nostalgic passion we all sometimes feel of a better life lived that is now past.
Wilson is particularly apt at playing the wide-eyed innocent in his films, characters full of flaws and self-depreciation, that when he shares the company of the likes of Ernest Hemingway (Corey Stoll), F. Scott Fitzgerald (Tom Hiddleston), Pablo Picasso (Marcial Di Fonzo Bo) and Gertrude Stein (Kathy Bates) in this, it’s the same wonderful thrill you get watching an overly appreciative kid in a candy store, brimming with newfound confidence. In addition, fans of these great minds will revel in their quotes and references. It’s a gloriously amusing cultural jaunt, and although a lot of the episodes are brief, the snapshot moment is all it takes to beguile you.
McAdams is fresh and energetic as Inez and as stunning as Marion Cotillard as Gil’s yesteryear love, Adriana. Again, the sumptuous set design is as intoxicating as the location, showing all involved off in the very best light, and implying that Allen is in love once again with his characters. Cotillard simply illuminates the screen like a silver-screen legend in her heyday, captivating both admirer Gil and the audience. Back in the present, Michael Sheen as know-it-all Paul, one half of a couple who befriend Gil and Inez, is absolutely hilarious and a sheer, conceited tonic to watch as he talks his way around the cultural city with all in tow. Even France’s First Lady, Carla Bruni, makes an appearance to add to the film’s radiance.
Midnight In Paris is like a soothing, retrospective project for Allen, his very own journey to recapturing creative inspiration and fantasy, as he rekindles his character love affair that made him such a satisfying film-maker a couple of decades ago, and brought out the very best performances in his cast – as it does here. Although it suffers from a sobering moment of moralistic self-righteousness about ‘living in the present’ to be more fulfilled, Midnight In Paris is an effervescent, witty and absorbing tale lost in time.
[Rating:4/5]
