Midnight In Paris (DVD)

Despite being a successful Hollywood screenwriter, Gil (Owen Wilson) is a man who feels he was born too late and in the wrong place. Visiting Paris with his fiancée and prospective in laws, he soon finds himself falling in love with the city, while at the same time being considerably less enamoured with his know-it-all holiday companied (Sheen), Tea Party obsessed father in law (Kurt Fuller) and even doubts the strength of his feelings for his prospective bride Inez (McAdams).

One night, after a drunken taxi ride, he is astonished to find himself transported through time to the thriving arts scene of the 1920s. Soon he is rubbing shoulders with such luminaries as Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein and Pablo Picasso. He also becomes besotted with the mysterious Adriana (Cottilard), already a source of passion and conflict amongst the likes of Picasso and Hemingway.

Woody Allen's latest film is a delight, as much a love letter to Paris as most of his earlier work is to New York. A bit of knowledge about the 1920s arts scene is a plus, though not essential, and while it's fun spotting which stars play which historical figures (Kathy Bates is Stein, Adrien Brody is Salvador Dali and so on), many of the best performances (Alison Pill's eccentric Zelda Fitzgerald, Corey Stoll's Hemingway) are from relative unknowns. France's First Lady, Carla Bruni, also crops up in a present day role as a museum guide.

Another nice touch is that the mechanics of time travel aren't explored at all. Wilson's Gil switches between both the 1920s and the modern day, but doesn't look out of place in either. The first time he goes back to the 1920s, it's a while before we even realise he's definitely there.

There are quibbles. Gil and Inez (McAdams, The Time Traveller's Wife here playing a time traveller's fiancée) seems so completely ill-suited that it's hard to imagine them ever having gotten together in the first place (something that's often true of relationships of in Woody Allen films). Some aspects of the plot seem a bit coincidental too. And although tall and blond, Wilson is clearly the latest in a long line of Woody Allen substitutes, following John Cusack, Kenneth Branagh and Larry David, in filling a role that Allen would have once played himself. His tweedy clothes and love of Cole Porter seem to belong to an older man (i.e. Woody), although in fairness, are not actually implausible.

With little serious critical acclaim for any of his films since the 1990s, unkind souls might suggest Allen has good reason to pine for the 20th century himself. Well, he and, indeed, Allen fans need pine no more. After many false dawns (Match Point, Vicky Cristina Barcelona) Midnight Paris is a genuine return to form. It has also been the most commercially successful of his 41 films to date.

Overall Verdict: An enchanting and heart warming delight and Woody Allen's best film in at least 20 years. Better not mention Goodnight Sweetheart though.

Special Features:
Trailer

Reviewer: Chris Hallam