Midnight Movie

This weekend, I went to see the newest film from Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris. It was a fun and breezy story that easily entertained; you should find it enjoyable whether you're a fan of Woody Allen or not.

On the one hand, it marks a "return to form" for the writer-director. After movies like Match Point and Vicky Cristina Barcelona, which don't feature a proxy character for the man himself, Midnight in Paris revolves around one. The protagonist is a neurotic, cloyingly self-depracating writer -- exactly the sort of person Allen would have played himself in younger days. Here, he instead casts Owen Wilson for the role. From the sound of it, I might not have thought it the most natural fit, but Wilson actually does an exceptional "Woody Allen impersonation." (It's not literal imitation, but you can absolutely hear the voice of Woody Allen speaking through him.)

But unlike those earlier Allen films (the ones I've seen anyway), this movie is decidedly plot-driven, and not merely "situation driven." This struggling novelist is falling in love with the city of Paris, and wistfully longing to have been there in the time he regards as its heyday -- the 1920s. And then, one midnight, up pulls a vintage car to pick him up and literally take him back to the 1920s. He suffers his days in the present, waiting for his nights in the past and the chance to hobnob with some of his favorite writers and artists.

I've already mentioned Owen Wilson's good performance, but the real draw of the movie in my mind is the lengthy list of actors who appear as famous figures from the past. Kathy Bates delivers a fun Gertrude Stein (with perhaps a few shades of her character from Titanic). Adrien Brody is an hysterical Salvador Dali. The real scene stealer isn't a household name (unless you watched Law & Order: LA) -- Corey Stoll is brilliant as Ernest Hemingway. But lest you think all the acting prowess is leveled at caricature, know that the cast in the "present" is solid too, including Rachel McAdams, a wonderfully pompous Michael Sheen, and veteran character actor (you'd recognize him, I'm sure) Kurt Fuller.

The message of the movie isn't necessarily deep, but it's well told. The editing sometimes lingers too long on shots of the city, but I have to admit that it stokes the fire I've always had to visit Paris myself someday. In the end, it's just a fun little movie. I rate it a B. It might not be something you're likely to see in a theater, but I do think it's worth seeing at some point.