Midnight in Paris review

Daniel Brizuela                                                                                                                                4/19/12

Midnight in Paris review.

            In 2011, Woody Allen, released a film he had completed in 2010, starring Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Kathy Bates, Marion Cotillard, and other great actors. That film is Midnight in Paris, a romantic fantasy comedy that Allen himself once again wrote and directed.

            The film has Owen Wilson playing a writer vacationing in Paris, and with a love of 1920s Paris art, with his fiancé who’s played by McAdams. After walking through the streets of Paris drunk he stops and after a clock striking midnight is invited by some people in old style clothing being driven in a 1920s style car. It is then that Wilson’s character, Gil Pender, realizes how beautiful and magical the city of Paris, France can really be.

            Pender realizes that the spot he was in at midnight takes him back in time to one of the Golden Ages of art in 1920s Paris. It is there that he meets many of his favorite idols, including Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Salvador Dali, and many other famous 1920s art figures. He also starts to fall in love with Pablo Picasso’s mistress Adriana, played by Marion Cotillard, and spends a lot of time with her in the past.

            Inez, Pender’s fiancée, doesn’t believe in any of his stories that he tells and isn’t as overwhelmed in Parisian art as Gil is. Near the end Gil realizes that Inez is cheating on him with a friend of hers that she adored and they both call off the wedding. Before that, Gill and Adriana end up in 1890s Paris which is also considered a Golden Age in art with Adriana deciding to stay and Gill deciding to stay in his own present.

            At the end Gil and Inez have broken up and Gil decides that he wants to stay and leave in Paris because of how beautiful it is. While walking in midnight, Pender runs into an antiques dealer he earlier met named Gabrielle, who, like him, also likes Paris in the rain.

            Midnight in Paris turned out to be one of Woody Allen’s best films he’s ever made, becoming the highest grossing he’s ever directed. At the 84^th Academy Awards, the film was nominated for Best Picture and Best Director and won for Best Original Screenplay.