'Paris,' Je T'Aime

Midnight in Paris

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

Directed by: Woody Allen

Starring: Owen Wilson, Marion Cotillard, Rachel McAdams, Michael Sheen and Kathy Bates

Running time: 98 minutes

The opening scene in Woody Allen’s 1979 masterpiece Manhattan shows a kaleidoscopic montage of New York skyscrapers and sumptuous city sites, as the writer/director contemplates (in voice-over) the perfect way to describe the place he has called home and always will.

The Paris-set slideshow that opens his latest film, Midnight in Paris, is similar. It may take in the scenery without the director commentary, but the sparkling photography and swanky Gershwin rhythms are still there. While Allen may always have New York as his home, Paris is his dream house.

The prolific writer/director has been taking Europe by storm. After conquering England (Match Point) and Spain (Vicky Christina Barcelona), he has situated his latest comedy—a time-travelogue of sorts— in a city of love, passion and whimsy. It’s also a film that’s as dreamy and delightful as anything Allen’s ever made, a film with plenty of Oscar caliber behind it that’s also the sunniest piece of summertime escapism to hit theatres so far this season.

Owen Wilson seems an unlikely Woody Allen surrogate, but he’s excellent as wistful American screenwriter Gil Pender, who vacations to “The City of Love” with his fiancee, Inez (Rachel McAdams). He wants to soak in the sights, but she’s happy to chat up with old friends (including an obnoxious intellectual played by Michael Sheen) and shop around.

Gil, frustrated by his career path as a “Hollywood hack,” wants to be taken more seriously as a writer. He hopes to explore Paris, allured by its cultural clout, to gain inspiration as he reworks his first novel. His work tells a tale about a man with a nostalgia shop, a protagonist who likely doesn’t stray too far from its author.

While strolling down a lonely avenue one evening, Gil is suddenly transported to a new side of the city that only comes out at the stroke of Midnight. I would love to delve further into the details of these surprising nightly excursions, but my Parisian lips are sealed.

So while I could spend the next four paragraphs analyzing the film’s exploration of fallacy and reality, and discussing the ingenious storytelling techniques, I won’t for your sake. I want you to be surprised.

Still, it shouldn't be too surprising that the character actors who pop up in these adventures—including Adrien Brody, Kathy Bates and Thor's Tom Hiddleston—are all terrific. Wilson is an excellent Woody Allen type, freshly mixing in the exaggerated perplexity, neurotic tics and that amicable smirk that Allen typically has plastered on his face in his better romantic comedies. Regardless, the comedy actor still keeps his individual charms intact.

Faring worse is Rachel McAdams and her parents played by Kurt Fuller and Mimi Kennedy, who portray boorish upper-class stereotypes. Thankfully, they’re not in the film for very long.

Midnight in Paris is an intoxicating pool of sparkling images, sly storytelling, terrific performances and, of course, Allen’s adoration for shining a light on all things romantic (and romanticist). Go ahead and dive in: it may be the best swim you have this summer.