By Scott Marks | SDUN Film Critic
“Midnight in Paris”
Written and Directed
by Woody Allen
Starring: Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Marion Cotillard and Corey Stoll
Running Time: 100 min.
Rating: 3 stars
The arrival of a new Woody Allen film used to be a cause for celebration, until somewhere around the release of “Crimes and Misdemeanors,” when the prolific Mr. Allen began spreading himself thin. He’s consistently averaged a film a year since first becoming a director in 1969, but over the past two decades ideas that once seemed fresh slowly grew stale, largely because instead of growing as a visual artist, Woody’s dependence on cinematographers tended toward foreign imports who come with lower price tags than seasoned pros.
“Midnight in Paris,” however, is a welcome breath of air. Perhaps Woody’s expansion into exotic ports of call, such as Belgravia and Barcelona, where, since 2005, the cloistered nebbish has ventured, is the inspiration for his revival. Certainly forgoing his Manhattan comfort zone to return to Paris (he fell in love with the City of Lights during the 1965 filming of “What’s New, Pussycat?” and used Paris as the backdrop for “Everyone Says I Love You” in 1996) appears to have done him good.
In “Midnight,” Gil (Owen Wilson) is a Hollywood screenwriter joining his bride-to-be Inez (Rachel McAdams) and her disapproving parents (Kurt Fuller and Mimi Kennedy) on a trip to Paris. Not unlike the characters created by his literary hero F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gil’s one-time dreams of authoring the great American novel are eventually quashed by the allure of Hollywood gold. But, during a midnight stroll, Gil discovers a portal to the past, a magic carriage ready to transport him back to the jazz age, where he rubs elbows with high-brows the likes of Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, Picasso, Bunuel and Dali.
The film is a return of sorts to Woody’s glory days of “Manhattan.” He begins with a similar picture postcard tour of a city, this time in color and minus his hilarious opening narration. But there is magic afoot in “Midnight” and instead of merely directing another romantic comedy, Allen (and production designer Anne Seibel) take us on a charming and thoroughly captivating tour of a fantasy Paris that only Woody could envision.
The cast, with the exception of McAdams, whose neurotic contortions play like a bad variation on Annie Hall, never fails to impress. The thought of the otherwise cuddly dollop of mayo Wilson assuming Rabbi Woody’s role initially gave me chillbumps, but I was surprised at how well he pulls it off. Don’t go in expecting the celebrity impersonators to speak in the same voice as do the characters upon which they are based. This is good old-fashioned, glamorized movie-speak, and all of the supporting parts, most notably Adrien Brody’s Jerry-Colonna-on-meth riff on Salvador Dali, are written and performed to perfection.
