"Midnight in Paris"

Woody Allen’s latest effort is a gem. It is a wonderful and entertaining piece about a dreamer, a man who would like to live in another time. It is about nostalgia and escapism, and a reminder that everyone can become disillusioned with life when they are only focused on seeing the good in other circumstances.


It is also a wonderful bit of escapism itself. Paris is a beautiful city, but here it is perfection that can only exist in the digitally color-corrected world of cinema. The story itself is a bit of magic-realism that everyone would love to experience, and for an hour and a half everyone can.

Owen Wilson’s Gil Pender is a writer who idolizes the authors of the twenties. He is engaged to a rich snob of a girl, who tolerates him for unknown reasons, and when her parents have to travel to Paris, Gil and fiancée tag along. Gil has always dreamed of living in Paris as his idols did, and on this trip he gets to experience Paris in a way no one has for decades. As he does he learns a lot about his ideal Paris, his writing, and his life in 2010. His “minor insight” as he calls it is the message of the film, and it is a good one that we repeatedly need reinforced.

Easily one of the best films of 2011, and highly recommended.