It's been a long time since I saw a Woody Allen movie. I needn't recap the personal reputational crash he's experienced over the past decade or so (I remain agnostic as to its validity). Perhaps I should develop a policy on how to approach art by troublesome artists. Or perhaps I should chew glass.
Midnight in Paris is one of his magical-realist comedies. Set in modern day Paris, a writer engaged to an awful woman finds himself transported each night to the Paris of the 20s. He meets Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Picasso, Dali, and a host of others. During the course of these adventures he comes to realize a) how awful his fiance is and b) how he can't live in a romanticized past. It's all very light-hearted, romantic, and delightful.
Although his main character is still basically Woody Allen, thankfully he stopped trying to play himself as the romantic lead. I think his last shot at that was shortly after the turn of the century, which was about 20 years too late. Here he gives the role to Owen Wilson who does a great job of playing Woody Allen, but more subtly and thoughtfully.
Yes, it's a standard Woody Allen comedy. If you hate those, you'll hate this. Also, although the moral of the story is to live in the present, you'd be hard pressed to get the most out of it unless you were aware of some of the personalities from the 20s, otherwise you'll miss a lot of the clever portrayals. I especially liked Adrien Brody's Dali. If you're OK with Woody Allen and have a passing awareness of the personalities from Paris in the 1920s you'll, like me, find it a fine piece of light entertainment -- sweet and engaging. It's promptly paced and deftly filmed. It won the Oscar for best original screenplay. What more could you want?
