Midnight in Paris - a film review

This romantic comedy is set in Paris and involves a young Hollywood screenwriter Gil (Owen Wilson), who is engaged to be married to a spoiled American princess (Rachel McAdams). Gil is somewhat lost on his already successful career path and wants to quit Hollywood to become a struggling writer in Paris. Seeking answers during a midnight walk through the city, Gil is picked up by a car and whisked away to a party, when some random encounters with famous people from the past change his life forever.  

Lighthearted, endearing and entertaining in the way all Woody Allen films are, Midnight in Paris jumps back in time to the Paris of Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and numerous other writers and artists of that time. Gil quickly finds himself living a nightly dream of his most favorite artistic period. The dream gets even more exciting with an introduction of a beautiful female writer named Adriana (Marion Cotillard). While Gil contemplates being stuck back in time to be with Adriana, she ironically reveals her desire to live in the time that predates her own due to inherent dissatisfaction with her present surroundings.

The film is both a homage to Paris, as well as a metaphor for the illusion some people have about changing their life’s circumstances. Like an artful postcard from Paris, Woody Allen sends this charming film to remind his fans that being disenchanted with the present is ridiculously futile.

I give this film 4 out 5 stars.