Midnight in Paris

So this engaged couple, Gil and Inez, tag along with her parents on Inez’s dad's business trip. To Paris. And as their story unfolds, we learn that Gil (Owen Wilson) is a Hollywood writer, successful financially with an elite job and an elite address. But of course he’s unsatisfied in his work because he longs to write the GAM. Doesn’t everybody? But he’s struggling to make the story work.

The city of Paris inspires him. He sees beauty everywhere, even in the rain. Maybe even especially in the rain. He can imagine what the place must have been like in the 1920’s, which he considers Paris’s Golden Age. So he tells his fiancée (Rachel McAdams) they should move there after they get married. And that flies over like a stainless steel baseball.

Not only does Inez disagree with Gil’s romanticized view of the city; she also doesn’t share his assessment of the golden age. In fact she doesn’t actually share any of his views. On anything. Nor does she seem all that excited to be with him.

So she takes off dancing with her friends. And while she’s hunting excitement, Gil takes a walk at midnight—his first of several. And each time he does, along comes a 1920’s vintage car that picks him up. Next thing you know, the guy is meeting T. S. Eliot, Gertrude Stein, Pablo Picasso, Cole Porter, the Fitzgeralds (as in F. Scott), and Earnest Hemingway. To name a few.

The excursions don’t exactly draw the couple together. And that’s where I’ll leave their story. Though it comes to a satisfying resolution, their flawed relationship isn’t the cool thing about this film.

And cool it is. Though I’m not a huge fan of His Strangeness, Woody Allen, about once every decade he creates a truly great flick. And this is one of those. What makes it terrific is art and lit. First, he introduces Paris in its beauty. The camera lingers. Even the opening shots of the city last longer than your typical pans across a landscape. He provides the viewer with a visual feast. Or perhaps I should say a movable one?

Second, the viewer has the pleasure of meeting all these great visual and literary artists, getting to know them through their own words in their own contexts and relationships. The personalities come complete with the individual quirks for which they are known, like womanizing (Picasso), macho bravado (Hemingway), and melodrama (Zelda Fitzgerald). So much art and creativity all in one place. Love.