Because I'm not enough of a Francophile, it was decided that we should go watch Woody Allen's latest - Midnight in Paris.
Gil (Owen Wilson) is in Paris with his fiancee Inez (Rachael McAdams) and her parents who are in the French capital for business purposes. As a writer who idolises the Lost Generation and 1920s Paris, Gil's pleasure at being surrounded by the art and culture of Paris contrasts greatly with Inez and her family who don't understand it and instead prefer to view it as an opportunity to pick up antiques, and for Inez's pompous friend Paul (Michael Sheen) who appreciates Paris as an opportunity to show off his (incorrect) knowledge of French Art History. Drunk and frustrated with the people around him, Gil wanders off one night and finds himself transported on successive nights to Paris of the 1920s, meeting such luminaries as Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, The Fitzgeralds, Pablo Picasso, and Picasso's lovely mistress Adriana (Marion Cotillard)...
This movie is like...Paris porn. The opening 5 or 10 minutes consist solely of still shots of various Parisian scenes and I sat there with Juliane, Susi, Asia, and Trung alternately giving sighs or squeals of pleasure. Okay, Trung didn't do that but we girls did! It almost made me regret my choice of city! And it was good to see all the different places again and know where it was and go *ugh, Paul is so annoying and wrong*...
Anyway, on a more critical appraisal, despite the change in setting, this is a pretty standard Woody Allenish film - it features a bickering couple, one of whom is going through an existential crisis and torn between what they want from life and love. The movie of course offers no real solution other than yearning for certain things can often blind you to what's in front of you - in this case, by wanting the glamour of another time, you stop living in the present. While seeming somewhat superficial and predictable initially, the more I think about it, the more clever it seems in using time travel and humour to get the message across. Or maybe I'm just being blinded by my own desires - ooh, clever in getting me to question myself!
As usual, the cast are fantastic, particularly Corey Stoll as Hemingway who delivers his lines with such aplomb and of course Cotillard who not only looks 1920s, but gives a great multi-faceted performance as a woman who seems a carefree life only to surprise us with what she really wants later in the film. I'd also like to give a shout-out to the ugly hot Adrien Brody who has a cameo as Salvador Dali - he REALLY looks like Dali and does great at showing the crazy. I'd say the weakest character is probably Rachael McAdams but that might also be because her role as Inez is fairly underwritten, and to me, inexplicable. Why go to Paris if you dislike it so much? And on that note - what kind of crazy girl dislikes Paris? It's PARIS!!!
Anyway, this is a fun romp through a city full of beauty, history, and love. Only a few months until my return to the lovely city and travel back in time myself! Fantastique!
8/10
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