By Aaron Jankowski
The first four minutes of Midnight in Paris, written and directed by Woody Allen, opens with a montage of scenes of Paris with classic French music playing. These are probably some of the most beautiful moments of this well shot film. What follows are the opening credits on a black screen with just a conversation between Gil (Owen Wilson), a screen play writer turned struggling novelist, and his fiancée, Inez (Rachel McAdams). Gil reveals his love for Paris, especially in the rain, while Inez expresses her lack of interest in the town and its history.
This slight difference in philosophy lays the ground work for the films main conflict. Gil and Inez don’t see eye to eye on a lot of things, mainly, their mutual friend Paul (Michael Sheen) who is a know it all and is constantly undermining all of Gil’s opinions. Paul and Inez also have a connection Gil and her seem to be lacking.
Inez calls Gil “a complete romantic,” and admires Paul’s pure intellect. Her interactions with Paul make Gil feel uncomfortable, so after a wine tasting, of which Paul is an expert, when Paul, his wife, and Inez want to go dancing, Gil decides to walk back to the hotel on his own.
It is on his first walk alone though Paris where he gets lost. Finally giving up, he sits down and waits for someone to come by to give him directions.
When the clock strikes midnight, and the bells ring out, an old car comes by Gil, and its passengers insist he joins them.
This is where the movie takes a twist I was not expecting.
Gil is driven to a local bar, though everyone is dressed in classic garb. The music is classic French love songs. Everything just feels a little off.
This is where Gil meets F. Scott Fitzgerald, the American novelist who died in the 40s. Gil thinks these people are playing a joke on him, though, when they go to another bar, and they meet Ernest Hemingway, Gil, like the audience, slowly accepts that somehow he is in the past. Taking advantage, Gil asks if Hemingway will read his novel, and he agrees to give it to Gertrude Stein.
When Gil leaves the bar to get his manuscript, he realizes it is no longer there, he goes back the next night to see if perhaps his evening spent with his literary heroes was fuelled by the wine tasting, or a divine miracle.
When the clock hits midnight, the same cab comes to pick Gil up, and he is once again transported into this wonderful world of old.
From here out, Gil writes during the day, and goes for midnight walks at night “to clear his head,” he tells Inez.
Each time Gil goes back, he is around some of the same people, though the year seems to change. One consistent though is Adriana (Marion Cotillard) with whom Gil is infatuated. Thus begins Gil’s intellectual affair on Inez with a women from the 20s.
Adriana is always with one famous person or another, thus making her unattainable both by status, and the time she lives in.
Allen does not explain why or how Gil and Adriana are jumping through time together. Instead, simply presents it as a fact. This allows the audience to just accept this as fact and enjoy the takes on famous artist such as Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí and T.S. Eliot.
Midnight in Paris’s score is beautiful classic French music, blended with 20’s love songs, and it guides Gil’s trip though the classic Paris he yearned to live in perfectly.
Wilson is perfect in his role as he deals with being completely star struck, yet trying to hold his own with his heroes. Though, saying Wilson is perfect in the role is not the same as saying he was anything different than we normally get from him. Wilson has the ability to almost be the same everyman in any scenario, which is perfect when placed with the over educated, know it all of Paul, and the historical figures he meets.
Sheen, as always, is excellent. The true mark of this is how annoying he gets, and how annoyed the audience will get with McAdams always agreeing with him.
Midnight in Paris shows a train wreck of a relationship, though it is an incredibly slow acting crash.
Allen’s script is witty and fun, while sadness looms just under the surface.
It is no surprise that Midnight in Paris was nominated for Best Picture, though I would be surprised if it won.
SCORE: 10/10
ACTING: 9/10
EFFECTS/VISUAL: 9/10
WRITING: 9/10
DIRECTING: 8/10
OVERALL: 45/50
TAKE AWAY THOUGHT: My first thought, about half an hour into Midnight in Paris, was “damn you Woody.” I’ve never been a fan of his work, and yet this has become one of my favourite movies, not just of his, but of all-time.
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