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Léa Seydoux and Owen Wilson star in Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris.

May 20, 2011 By Chris Tinkham Web Exclusive

In simplest terms, Woody Allen's filmography can be separated into three categories: "the early funny ones" of the late '60s and '70s; "the golden era," kickstarted by Annie Hall in 1977 and culminating with Crimes and Misdemeanors in 1989, during which the influences of Bergman and Fellini became prominent; and then there's everything else since Crimes and Misdemeanors. While a number of very good films have come out of the '90s and 2000s, how many have been great, if any?

During those two decades, Allen's most compelling examinations of the human condition had a vitriolic or sinister edge. Match Point, Allen's first box office hit since the '80s, was essentially Crimes and Misdemeanors without the comic relief of his screen presence. For his comedies, Allen generally relied on genre. But, largely missing in his work since the '80s was the romance of films such as Manhattan, Hannah and Her Sisters, and even Stardust Memories. The 1996 musical Everyone Says I Love You was an unwatchable mess, and, Sweet and Lowdown, arguably Allen's best film of the '90s, was a heartbreaker.

A breakthrough came in 2008 with Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Allen's second legit hit of that decade. Embracing the sensual atmosphere of the locale, and the sexiness of the film's stars, Allen rediscovered a common ground for his comedy and his romantic spirit. That common ground remains just as fertile with his latest film, the comedic fantasy Midnight in Paris, Allen's most entertaining work in over a decade.

A valentine to the City of Lights, the film begins with a spectacular montage of Parisian sights and landmarks that transitions from daylight to afternoon rain to clear nighttime skies. Shot by director of photography Darius Khondji, the sequence rivals Gordon Willis' black-and-white opening to Manhattan.

Owen Wilson plays Gil, a self-effacing Hollywood screenwriter whose lucrative career has sidetracked his ambition of being a novelist. Wilson's Wedding Crashers co-star, Rachel McAdams, plays Gil's fiancée, Inez, a pampered girl from a well-to-do family. The couple has accompanied Inez's parents, John (Kurt Fuller) and Helen (Mimi Kennedy), on their business trip to Paris. Gil is in the midst of working on a book, which Inez and her parents frown upon, fearing that it might compromise Gil's steady screenwriting work.

Gil, a Pasadena native, lived in Paris as an aspiring writer during his 20s and feels inclined to wander about the city to reconnect with it. Inez prefers for them to rendezvous at museums with friends Paul (Michael Sheen) and Carol (Nina Arianda). Paul, a former college crush of Inez, is an intellectual visiting to lecture at the Sorbonne. Gil, who romanticizes the idea of living in Paris in the 1920s ("in the rain," to be more specific), finds Paul's penchant for imparting his knowledge at every opportunity tiresome. Paul accuses Gil of suffering from golden age thinking—in other words, finding it difficult to cope with the present. Gil begins to excuse himself from get-togethers with Paul and Carol, and one night loses his way traversing the Rue de la Montagne St. Genevieve. There, while sitting all alone, Gil sees a vintage car pull up, and its passengers invite him to a party of all parties, one that will lead him to a series of fantastic encounters. Among these encounters, Gil meets Adriana (Marion Cotillard), a costume designer who takes to Gil's wonderment and enthusiasm for art.

Midnight in Paris is the kind of exuberant and magical fun that Allen roused back in the days of Zelig (1983) and The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985). Surprises and laughs await twist after turn. By day, when Gil is dragged along on pricey antique shopping excursions with Inez and her parents, or museum tours with Paul and Carol, Allen's always-hilarious disdain for the cultural elite, intellectuals, and the Hollywood studio film industry is unleashed in the dialogue. Yet, these scenes are set against an array of wonderful backdrops, such as the grounds at Versailles, the Musée Rodin, the Musée de l'Orangerie (home to Monet's massive Water Lilies paintings, seen in the film), Shakespeare and Company bookstore, and the Paul Bert open-air market. By night, when Allen is limited to interior sets, the romanticism of the Paris backdrops transfers to the text. Mockery is swapped for charming wit, which Wilson delivers with affable easiness. He and Cotillard have a great, offbeat chemistry in their scenes together.

As is the case with many lead actors in Allen's films, Wilson assumes some Woody mannerisms as Gil. This is such a strange, perpetual phenomenon considering that we hear time after time that Allen is a hands-off director who gives his actors little direction. Kenneth Branagh and Will Ferrell were the biggest failures in exorcizing their inner Woody, Rebecca Hall struggled with it, and Larry David was pretty much immune. But, even as Gil wrestles with the kind of nostalgia that we've come to associate with Allen and his films, Wilson retains enough of his own persona that it isn't that much of a distraction.

Allen's idealized, sparkly white vision of Paris might elicit groans from the same lot who protested that Amélie failed to reflect the city's ethnic and economic diversity. And, to the casual observer, it's not apparent why Allen changes cinematographers with every film. Of late, whether his films are set in London, Barcelona or Paris, the exteriors seem to be basking in the same golden hue. It would be interesting to see more distinctive variance; Khondji has worked on some visually memorable films (The City of Lost Children, Se7en, The Beach, My Blueberrry Nights). As mentioned, the opening of Midnight in Paris is a thing of beauty, but was Khondji allowed to let loose otherwise?

Though Allen's films the last two decades have not been as inconsistent in quality as his wildly erratic box office receipts suggest, it's noteworthy that two of his biggest hits ever have come since he's moved production from New York to Europe. Now, with Midnight in Paris boosting the collective quality of his string of European films, it might not be so simple to categorize Allen's filmography in three parts. It's still too early to call this a renaissance period in Allen's career, but one more film of Midnight in Paris' caliber would do the trick.

www.sonyclassics.com/midnightinparis

Author rating: 8/10