Midnight in Paris | Little White Lies

Mid­night in Paris

06 Oct 2011 / Released: 07 Oct 2011

A woman reclines on a bed, reading a book in a dimly lit room. A man in a suit stands in the background. The image has a moody, atmospheric quality with warm lighting and dark, rich colours.
A woman reclines on a bed, reading a book in a dimly lit room. A man in a suit stands in the background. The image has a moody, atmospheric quality with warm lighting and dark, rich colours.
2

Anticipation.

We’re all going on a Woody holiday.

3

Enjoyment.

An absurdly charming and unexpected return to form.

3

In Retrospect.

If Allen’s next stop on his Euro tour is anywhere near this enjoyable, consider our bags packed.

Mid­night in Paris isn’t a clutch at yes­ter­year; it’s a state­ment that Allen still has some­thing left to say.

For a film­mak­er as wild­ly incon­sis­tent as Woody Allen, it’s log­i­cal that his most grat­i­fy­ing offer­ing in recent mem­o­ry is also his safest. Mid­night in Paris is as light and pow­dered as French pas­try, but it’s made of more dis­cern­ing stuff than March’s ensem­ble dud You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger and the over­rat­ed Vicky Cristi­na Barcelona. Here, through the idyl­lic prism of the City of Light, Allen goes on a pas­tel-tint­ed nos­tal­gia trip that roman­ti­cis­es the past with­out los­ing sight of the present.

Owen Wil­son and Rachel McAdams play a well-heeled cou­ple who have come to Paris to shop and sight­see ahead of their wed­ding. Self-con­fessed Hol­ly­wood hack’ Gil’s (Wil­son) cul­tur­al hop­scotch is imped­ed by mate­ri­al­is­tic fiancé Inez (McAdams) and her con­ser­v­a­tive par­ents, who open­ly sniff at Gil’s gid­dy ide­al­ism. Then one night, after a tiff with his spouse-to-be, Gil stum­bles into an appar­ent time warp and the Parisian Gold­en Age’ he yearns to know appears. The 1920s roar back into life.

These recur­ring mid­night flings – where Gil is trans­port­ed seam­less­ly to anoth­er era to dine, dance and rumi­nate with his lit­er­ary idols – are charm­ing­ly ren­dered by Allen. But it’s Wil­son who real­ly makes these vignettes sparkle, riff­ing off the unbri­dled fan­cy of Allen’s script and inject­ing some charis­ma into the director’s famil­iar­ly neu­rot­ic surrogate.

The self-absorbed sub­text is a lit­tle hard to swal­low at times, but it’s impos­si­ble not to get lost in the cameo-laden bliss of each round of scotch with Ernest Hem­ing­way (Corey Stoll) and every swing with Zel­da Fitzger­ald (Ali­son Pill). Yet while it’s a shame when­ev­er Gil (and, by exten­sion, the audi­ence) is inevitably yanked back into real­i­ty, his recon­nec­tion with the real world ensures that Allen’s infer­ence that navel-gaz­ing and sanc­ti­fy­ing the good ol’ days is a futile pur­suit hits its mark. Mid­night in Paris isn’t a clutch at yes­ter­year after all; it’s a state­ment that Allen still has some­thing left to say.

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