Midnight in Paris
Certified: PG
Duration: 94 minutes
Directed by: Woody Allen
Starring: Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Michael Sheen, Nina Arianda, Kurt Fuller, Marion Cotillard, Adrien Brody, Carla Bruni, Corey Stoll, Kathy Bates
KRS release

Midnight in Paris is a welcome return to scintillating form for Woody Allen.

It is well known that Mr Allen is extremely loved in France and in this film he reciprocates this love by making one of the best cinematic odes to the French capital.

This film, in fact, can be his Valentine’s card to the city where passion for art, life and love really come alive... even on this film.

Owen Wilson plays Gil, a Hollywood screenwriter who feels that his job does not really fulfill his artistic aspirations.

He thus decides to write a novel in Paris. He goes there on vacation with his girlfriend Inez (Rachel McAdams) and accompanied by her parents, Carol and John (Nina Arianda and Kurt Fuller).

Gil is not exactly in the good books of Inez’s parents; making matters worse is Paul (Michael Sheen), Inez’s highly opinionated friend.

Gil is, however, in love with Paris and yearns for its golden age, in the 1920s.

He fantastically gets his chance one evening, while roaming the Parisian streets solo, when at the chime of midnight a vintage car pulls up and he is given a ride by an unlikely group.

He is taken to a party where he meets Paris’s artistic elite, among whom are F. Scott Fitzgerald (Tom Hiddlestone) and wife Zelda (Alison Pill), Picasso (Marcial Di Fonzo Bo) and his mistress Adriana (Marion Cotillard) and legendary Ernest Hemingway (Corey Stoll).

Gil keeps mum about coming from the future and he is thrilled when Hemingway tells him that he will have his novel read by none other than Gertrude Stein (Kathy Bates).

On leaving the party, however, he finds himself back in the present along with the usual problems.

The following night, he seeks out these personalities from the past, including Salvador Dalì (Adrien Brody). Meanwhile, he starts developing feelings for Adriana and Gil must choose whether to stay in this fantasy or go back to his mundane and dissatisfying life.

The film benefits immensely from the beautiful cinematography of Darius Khondji which does justice to Mr Allen’s vision. The screen is given a shimmer and aura of light and razzle dazzle that is very tangible.

This gives flesh to the vision of a director who is coming to terms with past and present: the idealisation of the past and the coping with the present.

Gil as played by Owen Wilson really embodies these conflicts and brings them to life on screen.

Besides, the cast and director seem to be having fun bringing these legendary figures of the art world to life.

Adrien Brody in particular, as Salvador Dalì, is simply sidesplitting in the way he channels the great artist.

Marion Cotillard is a dream girl come true and it is easy to see how Gil can turn her into his fantasy centrepiece.

Compare her sophistication and sheen with Ms McAdams’s shrill caricature and it’s no wonder Gil is head over heels in love with Adriana. The delightful cameo by Carla Bruni as a museum guide is simply the cherry on the cake.

For Mr Allen, this film seems to merge his comic sensibilities from the excellent Bullets Over Broadway (1994) and the fantastical touch from The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985), with a new-found enlightened feel that only experience can bring.

Midnight In Paris will have you smiling and engaging in a whimsical fantasy and is the perfect way to close off the year.