Midnight in Paris Movie Review [4.1/5]
Movie Review by detroitnews.com
Every few years Woody Allen makes a great movie, and people talk about how Woody’s back. Well, since he does this regularly, he’s never really away. With “Match Point” (2005), “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” (2008) and now “Midnight in Paris,” it’s pretty clear that New York City’s favorite neurotic nerd is still one of America’s greatest and most prolific filmmakers.
“Midnight in Paris” opens as a loving postcard to all things Eiffel and then turns into a fairy tale balancing the timelessness of dissatisfaction with the beauty of human aspiration. Along the way, Allen trots out a troupe of classic literary characters played by actors who seem to be having a lot of fun, and the high is contagious.
Owen Wilson plays Gil, a present-day hack Hollywood screenwriter trying to work on a serious novel as he visits Paris with his uptight fiance Inez (Rachel McAdams) and her even more uptight parents. Inez is hanging out a lot with a pretentious British professor (Michael Sheen, wonderfully obnoxious) so Gil finds himself wandering the streets one night when the clock strikes 12.
Review by The Globe and Mail
In the 11th hour of his career, Midnight in Paris is precisely what we’ve come to expect from Woody Allen – another stop in a European capital, another nicely engineered little film more clever than substantial, mildly ruminative if hardly profound, and attractively cast with actors who, much like us, are delighted to venture out on a late date with the old pro. Certainly, his work here feels effortless, and that feather-light touch gives the picture its charm – modest but real.
As in Match Point and Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Woody serves up one more couple on the cusp of marriage and finds tension in that now-familiar battle between security and passion. Gil and Inez (Owen Wilson and Rachel McAdams) are visiting Paris in the company of her very Republican parents. A successful Hollywood screenwriter but a failed novelist, he loves the city and its rich artistic past. She loves herself and shopping. The frustrated Tinseltown hack, the pretty blond narcissist – yes, they’re both card-carrying clichés, yet don’t fret too much. Midnight has yet to strike.
Review by denverpost.com
In Woody Allen’s “Midnight in Paris,” a 1920 Peugeot cruises down a narrow, cobbled street. Somewhere, a clock sounds midnight. The car comes to a stop in front of Gil.
Played by one of Allen’s best avatars, Owen Wilson, this American in Paris has joined his rather forceful fiancee, Inez (Rachel McAdams), and her underwhelmed parents in the City of Lights.
“Take a cab,” Inez had told him earlier in the evening. “You’ll get lost.”
Now, he is. And Gil will be a great deal more turned-around before he finds his soul’s bearings. That vintage sedan is the color of a bumblebee, and a festive buzzing emanates from within.
There’s heightened buzz around Allen’s comedy too, with some hailing it as his best work in 10 years. (It opened May’s Cannes Film Festival.)
Yet, as playfully inventive a jaunt as “Midnight in Paris” is, this assessment suffers from the very hankering that afflicts Gil: nostalgia for a bygone era at the risk of missing out on the present.
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