This film seemed tailormade for me. I am a lifelong Francophile I had the good fortune to start studying French at an early age in my public elementary school in Michigan. When I was in college I studied in Paris. I walked those streets and felt that I knew this city. When I went to graduate school, a central part of my thesis focused on the works of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Midnight in Paris is definitely in my cinematic wheelhouse.
For those not famliar with the movie, Midnight In Paris has to to do with dreams and time travel. Gil (Owen Wilson) and Inez (Rachel McAdams) are engaged. They are vacationing in Paris with her parents. Gil has been a Hollywood screenwriter and now very much wants to write novels. One night while he's walking in Paris, he finds himself back in the twenties and making the acquaintance of the artists of that time. During this vacation, it becomes a nightly ritual for him to go back to this other world.
When the film began, I was immediately transported. It starts as a visual valentine to Paris. This was one of my favorite aspects of this film, the cinematography that showed off this city. It made me think about how one can have a love affair with a place. It made me very happy to experience Paris again.
I very much liked Owen Wilson in this film. He had the challenge of making a Woody Allen part his own. The cadence of the language and the sentiments expressed could easily be imagined being said by a younger Woody Allen. I felt that Wilson paid homage to how Allen would have played this role, and then he added what I would call a Jimmy Stewart element to the mix. Wilson has a very sincere, aw shucks component here that really worked. In this film, he is a quintessential American. He is earnest and in love with art and French culture. Wilson chose to bypass the neuroticism and the frenetic activity that often accompanies playing the Woody Allen role in a movie. I appreciated that decision.
I felt that this film suffered from a bias that is often found in romantic comedies, where the writer doesn't seem to trust that the audience will believe in the main character's mission without stacking the deck. In this film, Gil's fiancee, Inez, is portrayed as a thoroughly unpleasant person. It is evident from the start of the film that Gil needed to cut off ties with her and pursue his own life. I think the film would have been stonger if she had been presented as more of a viable option.
I enjoyed the sense of history in the film. It was great fun to see the portrayals of famous writers, musicians, and artists from time past. The notion that everyone, no matter what era, longs for a simpler, grander, legendary time felt true and important. Despite its flaws, I was glad I saw this film.
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