Midnight in Paris may be Woody Allen’s best film in years, but it isn’t on par with his best work from the 1970s and 1980s. You don’t have to be an aficionado of Allen’s work to see where the story is going most of the time, and the minor characters seem to have the most interesting action and dialogue.
Male leads in Allen’s films have a tendency to act like the writer-director himself—see Michael Caine in Hannah and Her Sisters—but here, Owen Wilson (Gil) does a decent job of not playing Woody Allen, but he doesn't quite shake his own persona. Rachel McAdams does well with probably the most thankless role in the film, but she and Wilson are easily outshone by the supporting characters played by Kathy Bates (Gertrude Stein), Corey Stoll (Ernest Hemingway), Alison Pill (Zelda Fitzgerald), and Marion Cotillard (Adriana).
Allen’s weakest dialogue still runs circles around what pollutes most Hollywood films. The dialogue in the contemporary scenes seem pedestrian compared to that in the period scenes. While this helps elucidate Gil's fascination with the past, the comparative flatness and dullness of the contemporary characters work against the believability of the ending.
Like many of the nominated films, Midnight in Paris is beautiful to look at. Modernist era Paris looks like someplace one would want to live while contemporary Paris looks by turns like a series of postcards and a tourist trap
With so much to recommend it, it’s a shame Midnight in Paris doesn’t have a more surprising or thought-provoking script. The time-travel device works to get Gil into the 1920’s, but that era is so well-realized that this viewer wishes Allen had focused on it and left out the Wilson-McAdams story.
Midnight in Paris is nominated for Best Picture, Art Direction, Director, and Original Screenplay.
Watch the trailer here.
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This review, written by LR Simon, is part of our series on the 84th Academy Award nominations.
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