Midnight in Paris (2011)

This is classic Woody Allen, with a touch more whimsy thanhe usually delivers. This film does not fall outside his usual repertoire of issues--life crises, marital issues, creative anxiety, and the like, but the backdrop of Paris adds a hint of romanticism into the mix.Our hero is not Allen himself, as is so oftent the case, but Owen Wilson, who plays Gil Pender, an erstwhile Hollywood scriptwriter, comes to the city with his fiance Inez (Rachel McAdams) and her parents. After years of hackdom, he wishes to write his first novel, but his neurotic self-flagellation gets in the way, especially when faced with a friend of Inez' they run into, the aggressively-intellectual braggart Paul (Michael Sheen). It is Paris that inpires him--he can barely step out of the hotel before he is excitedly cataloguing the city’s rich artistic past. "Imagine this town in the 20s!" he marvels, as Inez rolls her eyes and shops for furniture, with her equally disapproving parents. It is clear early on that the relationship is in trouble, and soon, Gil’s alone, wandering the streets and dreaming of the past. At which point, a church bell strikes midnight, and a vintage car stops nearby, ready to whisk him away on a jazz age adventure. His post-midnight adventures include all th ePairs icons, from Hemingway to Gertrude Stein. The transition from present to past is seamless and fun.Indeed, the film is carried by Wilson, who is an easy target for those seeking the ‘Woody Allen character’. Although, while Gil fulfils the familiar checklist of insecurities, it is his dopey, naive outlook that sells the film, Wilson is pitch perfect as the lovable fool. His bewildered reactions provide the foil to the broad performances of the rest of the cast, both in the past and the present.Midnight In Paris is warm and delightful. It’s testament to the solid, evocative ideas that form its backbone--exploring the character’s crisis in such an expressionistic, fantastical way.