Midnight in Paris

Woody Allen’s most entertaining comedy in years, Midnight in Paris follows an American screenwriter (Owen Wilson’s Gil) as he’s magically transported back to the roaring ’20s – with the film subsequently detailing Gil’s attempts at balancing his time in both the present and the past. There’s little doubt that Midnight in Paris, in its early stages, comes off as a fairly typical Allen effort, as the movie initially details the back-and-forth dynamic between Gil and his seemingly incompatible girlfriend (Rachel McAdams’ Inez) – with an ongoing (and anticipated) emphasis on Gil’s neurotic exploits (eg Gil worries about Inez’s friendship with a pompous professor, Gil contemplates moving to Paris permanently, etc, etc). Wilson’s charming performance and the picturesque atmosphere ensure that the movie fares well enough in its early stages, although, as inevitably becomes clear, Midnight in Paris improves considerably once Gil takes his first trip through time – as the inherently compelling nature of the character’s fish-out-of-water exploits are heightened by the irresistible presence of several familiar historical figures (eg F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, etc). The pervasively pleasant atmosphere effectively compensates for the few lulls within the narrative (eg Gil’s encounter with Adrien Brody’s almost unreasonably quirky Salvador Dalí), which ultimately cements Midnight in Paris‘ place as a crowd-pleasing, consistently engrossing effort from a far-from-reliable filmmaker.

***1/2 out of ****