Midnight in Paris

June 2, 2011

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Woody Allen’s “Midnight in Paris” is an open bar of culture — an enticing, enchanting buffet of art and romance to get drunk on. Allen himself has not drunk so deeply of the wonders of a city since “Manhattan,” his masterful 1979 valentine to his hometown.

Here, Owen Wilson, joining a long line of Allen avatars, plays Gil, a disillusioned writer of Hollywood trash who’s dazzled and inspired by the City of Lights, where he’s vacationing with his belittling terror of a fiancée (Rachel McAdams). Longing to have lived in the Paris of the ’20s (and taking plenty of verbal whippings for it), Gil — who’s also penning a novel about a guy who works in a nostalgia shop — is, one night, whisked away to the Jazz Age in a Cinderella-style carriage.

Once it time-travels, the film, already teeming with dreamy Parisian vistas, springs magically to life, with Gil systematically encountering a pinch-yourself lineup of creative geniuses. He attends a party for Jean Cocteau with F. Scott Fitzgerald (Tom Hiddleston), where Cole Porter plays the piano. Soon enough, he’s having his book critiqued by Gertrude Stein (Kathy Bates), grabbing drinks with Salvador Dalí (Adrien Brody) and talking shop with Ernest Hemingway (Corey Stoll), whose blunt, pithy philosophies are a major highlight.

The endless who’s-who does yield a certain crowded, cartoonish feel; however, it serves Allen’s purpose of farcical excess, and the icons’ (inevitably) broad renderings allow for a (necessary) broad accessibility. Frankly, it’s a joy just to watch Allen ably and evenly manage yet another plumply-stuffed cast, which also includes Michael Sheen, Carla Bruni, Mimi Kennedy and Marion Cotillard as Gil’s time-warp squeeze.

For the creatively inclined, “Midnight in Paris” is especially rewarding, as Allen, scoring big amidst a recent career stretch that’s been very hit-and-miss, uncharacteristically condemns contemporary cynicism and celebrates the virtues of artistic camaraderie and mentorship. Moreover, he finds a handsome, delightful, and very funny way to express that, while we should certainly learn from the past, we needn’t live in it.