It took a while, but something has finally topped Captain America as my favorite movie of 2011. Midnight in Paris is an incredible feat of art, delving into a topic that really need to be addressed in today’s society and one that makes for a great movie.
During a trip to Paris with his fiancé Inez (Rachel McAdams) and her parents, Gil (Owen Wilson) finds himself traveling back in time to Paris in the 1920′s, where his nostalgia comes to life through all of the famous artists and writers he has always longed to meet. But his venturing causes him to look inside himself and begin to fully understand where he wants to be in his life and that he’s been wrong for a very long time.
This is really a movie about nostalgia, which is funny, because there are actually a ton of movies from 2011 that were about nostalgia. Nevertheless, this is easily the best of them all. All of director Woody Allen’s tropes are present, but they’re used in a way he’s never used them before and it really works. The film is slow but steady and very whimsical, portraying 1920′s Paris in a way that really makes you want to go there. Even if you don’t have the same nostalgic feelings that Gil does for the era, you’re able to feel it due to the way the film portrays the time. The movie always stays light and leaves you feeling happy, even as Gil begins to understand that both his relationship with his fiancé and his nostalgic feelings aren’t quite what he thought they were.
Throughout the story were are introduced to a number of historical figures including Hemingway (Corey Stoll), Dalí (Adrien Brody) and Picasso (Marcial Di Fonzo Bo), and each of them is played brilliantly by the all-star (figuratively speaking) cast. But I had the most fun just watching Gil react to everything he was going through. At first I really wasn’t sure I was going to like the character because of how much of a loser he is. He’s a writer who knows he writes crap but hasn’t done anything to change that and we can see very early on that he is completely oblivious to how awkward and misplaced he is in Inez’s family. It’s great to watch him come around and understand what’s going on. It also gets rather personal when he’s addressing his nostalgic feelings as he comes to a conclusion that has always amused me about the way we view the world today.
Midnight in Paris is an absolute must-see, and I never ever thought I would say that about a Woody Allen film. There is nobody I would not encourage to watch this film.
Final Verdict: 