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Title: Midnight in Paris
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| CONSUMER ADVICE |
Parents, there is some mild language and sexuality, but it's minor. Recommended for ages 12 and up. |
People always say to write what you know. Writers say that’s not the hard part: The hard part is finding a place to write that inspires you. For the past several years Woody Allen has been writing and directing films is Paris, France, where he has produced some of his best work in years. “Midnight In Paris” strikes me as both a love letter to the city as well as a commentary to critics of his work. The movie revolves around a screenplay writer named Gil (Owen Wilson) who is in Paris with his fiancée Inez (Rachel McAdams). Though he has a comfortable life in Hollywood California, there’s something about Paris that can’t be duplicated. A life and style that inspires in a way other cities cannot.
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Many of his favorite writings were written by people who lived in Paris. One night he gets transported back in time to old Paris and meets many of his favorite authors: Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and even painter Pablo Picasso. Though skeptical at first, Gil makes nightly trips at midnight to the spot where can bask in the glory of his idols. They provide him with keen insight of the book he’s writing, while he gains a new insight to life. That the time travel is never really explained doesn’t bother me so much. Woody Allen has bigger things to explore then how (or why) Gil winds up in the past every night at midnight. In the past Gil meets a beautiful woman named Adrianna (Marion Cotillard), whose beauty seduces everyone.
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At first this is a sweet and harmless romantic comedy. While it fails to have the pratfalls that most people associate with romantic comedies, there is a twinkle and innocence here that makes the whole thing wonderfully absurd. But there is another layer to this film that makes it work. At one point during a date, Gil and Adrianna are pulled farther back in time where they meet some of her literary idols. She proposes they stay there, because everything in her time is so boring. Gil asks if she’s crazy. He explains that they are creating wonderful works of literature. That life isn’t always exciting at every moment is just life, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t anything of value to find in the present.
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For the last twenty years Woody Allen has been criticized for not making movies as good as his old stuff. They claim he’s lost his touch. The truth of the matter is some of his movies work and some of them don’t. Like every director, Allen has movies that work and movies that don’t. That he’s more productive than most other directors just makes the scale more uneven sometimes. But there is stuff in life that is happening. There will be lulls in life, but that’s to be expected. What matters is that you do what you love. Hopefully around people and places that inspire you. People always say to write what you know. Writers say that’s not the hard part: The hard part is finding a place to write that inspires you.
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