Midnight In Paris (2011): C'est Bon!

I like Woody Allen’s European period, what I’ve seen of it. And this may be the best of his recent pictures, certainly up there with Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2009).

Midnight in Paris is a delightful, little light romantic comedy. The romance, however, is not between a man and a woman, but with a time and a place – most especially with the place: an idealized, beautiful Paris. Allen is in love with Paris, and takes us on a lovely, sentimental travelogue through the city. Paris along the Seine, Paris in the rain, boulevards, alleyways, Paris at midnight. I kept smiling to myself as I recognized landmarks, famous and otherwise. Through the magic of the movies, we also get to see this city of lights not only today, but in two of its earlier glorious inceptions: the 1920s Lost Generation era of Ernest Hemingway, Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald , Picasso, Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, et al; and the belle époque period of the late 19th century, of Maxim’s, Tolouse-Lautrec, Gauguin, and that lot.

There is a story here, of course, about a Hollywood screenwriter, Gil (Owen Wilson) who has come to Paris with his fiancée, Inez (Rachel McAdams), tagging along with her parents on Daddy’s business trip. Gil has had some success in Hollywood and it is a little unclear why he has any need to be freeloading off his in-laws-to-be, but there they are – wealthy beyond the dreams of avarice. Inez and her family are presented to us as quintessential ugly Americans, who see Paris as a quaint little backwater, albeit with great shops, and who can’t wait to get back to Malibu. Gil, on the other hand, is a dreamer. He just wants to live and breathe Parisian culture, art, food, history. He has fantasies about moving to Paris (don’t we all), setting up in a little apartment, and becoming a ‘real’ writer, like other expatriates before him. Inez thinks he’s nuts, and tells him so. Repeatedly.

As in so many Woody Allen films, we are presented with a classic dysfunctional couple, ill suited to one another, who somehow believe they love one another, even while it is apparent to the rest of us that this just is not going to work. Gil just wants to walk the streets of romantic Paris with his girl, but she’s not having it. There’s a shopping date, a lunch date, a timetable to attend to. Rachel McAdams does a terrific job playing a beautiful woman with a repulsive personality. She is so convincing that I’m crossing her off my cinema girlfriend list (at least until her next picture).

So Inez goes off and does her thing, and Gil sets off to do his. [spoiler alert] Around midnight, Gil finds himself transported back to the world of his dreams – in the company of his idols, the Fitzgeralds (Tom Hiddleston and Alison Pill), Hemingway (Corey Stoll), Cole Porter (Yves Heck), Gertrude Stein (Cathy Bates) and the rest. How this happens is not explained, but we are to believe he’s really there – this is not played as a dream a la Dorothy’s visit to Oz. While at first Gil is astounded, he quickly accepts the situation and then starts to really dig it. And so do we – the caricatures of these writers and artists of legend are quite witty, especially Hemingway, Zelda, and Dali (Adrien Brody). It’s a gimmick but it’s cute.

Gil also meets Picasso’s lover, Adrianna (Marion Cotillard) and is enchanted. She also is attracted to him. Ahhh, some dramatic tension – what about Gil’s engagement (and Adrianna’s connection to Picasso)? I won’t tell, find out for yourself. More significantly, we are privileged to see Ms. Cotillard in a whole new light. I don’t know about you, but I never understood what the big deal about her was. She was good as Edith Piaf in La Vie En Rose (2007), barely noticeable in Inception (2010); but didn’t project (to my sensibility, anyway) warmth, beauty, or sexual allure in those pictures. Here, however, she gives us all of that, with a dollop of real intelligence to boot. She can take McAdams’ place on the girlfriend list. In any event, Gil is surprised to discover that Adrianna and her contemporaries don’t find their era particularly special. They imagine that times were way cooler back at the turn of the century. There’s a lesson here, of course. Gil figures this out pretty quickly, as do we.

There is not a lot of meat to this film. But it got me thinking. Allen’s sympathies are clearly with his protagonist, with his love affair with Paris, with art, with the fantasies of every sojourner who imagines “what would my life could be like if I settled here?” (wherever ‘here’ is). Who hasn’t thought about relocating to a vacation spot, opening up a little B&B or, perhaps, telecommuting from the beach or the bistro? But after soaking up the local splendor, we always come home. In Midnight In Paris, Gil decides he’s staying in Paris. In fact, he’s a fish out of water there, doesn’t even speak the language, as far as we can tell. His antagonists, Inez and her family and friends, are portrayed as smug and superficial, but they aren’t nincompoops – they go to the museums and historic places, travel to Versailles and even out to Mont Saint Michel, they are clearly well educated people. They shop for antiques, while Gil shops for Cole Porter sheet music. They are living in the real world – albeit a luxurious one – while Gil is living … in his dreams? Is their world so evil, so wrong?

I doubt Woody Allen wants us to question his premise or his protagonist’s choices in this way. As I said at the outset, Midnight In Paris is pretty light entertainment. But it IS entertaining. And Owen Wilson, always a likeable character, really carries this movie. He’s got a great face, always changing. It’s not at all handsome, but it’s always interesting. His sense of wonder, dreaminess, and earnestness are endearing. If you close your eyes, at times he sounds almost like Woody, and of course he is Allen’s alter ego. Like his alter ego, he is attracted to beautiful women, but unlike the Woody Allen character, Wilson’s Gil is comfortable around women and it doesn’t stretch credulity to believe that women are attracted to him. Wilson is also a better actor than Woody Allen.

So, Midnight In Paris gives us sentimentality, romance, fantasy, a moral, food for thought – that’s enough, isn’t it? And it’s a great title.

In current release.      Here's a trailer.