Product Description This is a romantic comedy set in Paris about a family that goes there because of business, and two young people who are engaged to be married in the fall have experiences there that change their lives. It's about a young man's great love for a city, Paris, and the illusion people have that a life different from theirs would be much better. .com Paris is a city that lends itself to daydreaming, to walking the streets and imagining all sorts of magic, a quality that Woody Allen understands perfectly. Midnight in Paris is Allen's charming reverie about just that quality, with a screenwriter hero named Gil (Owen Wilson) who strolls the lanes of Paris with his head in the clouds and walks right into his own best fantasy. Gil is there with his materialistic fiancée (Rachel McAdams) and her unpleasant parents, taking a break from his financially rewarding but spiritually unfulfilling Hollywood career--and he can't stop thinking that all he wants to do is quit the movies, move to Paris, and write that novel he's been meaning to finish. You know, be like his heroes in the bohemian Paris of the 1920s. Sure enough, a midnight encounter draws him into the jazzy world of Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Picasso and Dali, and an intense Ernest Hemingway, who promises to bring Gil's manuscript to Gertrude Stein for review. Gil wakes up every morning back in the real world, but returning to his enchanted Paris proves fairly easy. In the execution of this marvelous fantasia, Allen pursues the idea that people of every generation have always romanticized a previous age as golden (this is in fact explained to us by Michael Sheen's pedantic art expert), but he also honors Gil's need to find out certain truths for himself. The movie's on the side of gentle fantasy, and it has some literary/cinematic in-jokes that call back to the kind of goofy humor Allen created in Love and Death.The film is guilty of the slackness that Allen's latter-day directing has sometimes shown, and the underwritten roles for McAdams and Marion Cotillard are better acted than written. But the city glows with Allen's romantic sense of it, and Owen Wilson has just the right nice-guy melancholy to put the idea over. A worthy entry in the Cinema of the Daydream. --Robert Horton
V**S
Absolutely Enchanting
I will admit that I occasionally find no interest in movies based on their title and cover. "Midnight in Paris" happened to be one of those that I had no desire to watch. Frankly, I'm not that interested in vacationing in Paris, so I thought the movie wouldn't interest me if that happened to be the subject matter. I knew it did well in Oscar nominations and wins for Woody Allen, but it didn't incite me to watch it anyway.So here we are, four years later, and I rent it on Amazon Prime streaming instant video. What a fantastic romantic comedy with a message that, for me as an author, goes straight to my heart.Meet Gil Pender, a screenwriter and hopeful novelist, who is vacationing in Paris. He is somewhat like me in the fact that he fantasizes about eras past. For him, it's the 1920's in Paris, while for me I'm stuck in the Victorian Era. Gil thinks that life must have been really peachy in Paris with the great upcoming artists of its time like F. Scott Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Stein, Picasso, and many others. In fact, he is so in love with Paris, that he tries to talk his fiancee to moving there to live after they marry. However, she's more of a realist and really wants to stay in the states in Malibu and Hollywood.One evening, when his girlfriend would rather go dancing than walk back to the hotel with him, they go their separate ways. Gil wanders around the city trying to find his way back. A classic car from the past pulls up and stops. The occupants encourage him to take a ride with him, so he climbs in for fun, drinks, and the time of his life. They arrive at a party, and low and behold, he's been transported back into 1920 meeting the people he has admired his entire life. When he returns to reality, his fiancee thinks he has a brain tumor. Nevertheless, each night he goes back, and when the clock strikes midnight, his ride returns for another adventure.The story is filled with wonderful themes, and for me as an author, I laughed, oohed, and awed, over some stellar lines. When Gil asks Hemingway to read his book, he replies, "If it's bad, I'll hate it because I hate bad writing, and if it's good, I'll be envious and hate all the more. You don't want the opinion of another writer."However, the most poignant part of the movie is the theme that those who are nostalgic about former eras, thinking they were better than the present, are misguided. Michael Sheen, who plays a know-it-all vying for the affections of Gil's girlfriend, states this one spot-on statement."Nostalgia is denial - denial of the painful present... the name for this denial is golden age thinking - the erroneous notion that a different time period is better than the one one's living in - it's a flaw in the romantic imagination of those people who find it difficult to cope with the present."Of course, as a writer of historical romances, and understanding the need for women who read them, it is quite true. The magic realization is that each generation feels the same. A woman that Gil falls for in the 1920's, dreams about living in the Belle Epoque time period (the overlapping era of Victorian and Edwardian). That generation probably fantasized about the Regency era.All in all, I enjoyed the movie thoroughly. It was lighthearted, thought provoking, and some of the lines were diamonds. Woody Allen is a genius at times, and his multiple awards for the screenplay were well deserved.
S**0
A Gorgeous, Magical Experience in True Escapism
Woody Allen once said: "If my films don't show a profit, I know I'm doing something right". And boy, is he ever right. Why would he want to settle on being an ordinary filmmaker, incapable of directing a film like this? Shudder to think!It was this past summer that I visited the theatres to see this film at the urging of a friend. I have enjoyed most of the films he's done in the past 10 years, so I was game. I wasn't even half an hour in before I fell head over heels in love with this film.First thing to note - the city of Paris is a character all its own. Glittering, beautiful, rich & elegant, Allen's cinematography brings the City of Lights to life. If you've ever been to Paris - or have longed to go like yours truly - watching this movie will make you want to return (or cash in your life savings to make the trek). Woody Allen has always had a long love affair with Paris, and his affection shows up in every shot of the city. Everything is awash with color and light. No washed out tones to be found anywhere.Paris aside, the film is absolutely magical. Owen Wilson is an actor who has never appealed to me. I have routinely found his comedies lacking humor, substance and style, and he's never been believable to me. I was completely surprised to find him not only charmingly genuine here, but completely loveable and relatable. Rachel McAdams is always fabulous, and this movie is no exception. There are many other wonderful actors showcased, most of them being unknown. Two standouts are Alison Pill (an extreme talent - watch out for her) and Corey Stoll. I won't spoil the story by telling you who they play; that's half the fun. If you're like me, you'll watch it for the first time and squeal with delight with each character's reveal. Let's just say you might want to brush up on your literature and art history prior to watching the film. I must say that immediately after leaving the theatre, I was ready to book my Air France ticket. Then I was brought back to reality when my finances came up and bit me in the nose.Well, I could go on and on, but I will spare you. Just do yourself a favor and watch this movie. If you're ok with suspending belief to enjoy a magical two hours, you will love it. If not, then you might as well numb your brain on another insipid, uncreative Hollywood big-box release.
D**S
Worth a looksee
Cute film. If you are a history buff with emphasis in literature and / or philosophy it is a fun watch. As a rom-com it kinda passes.
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