Ever visited a city and felt so entranced by it that you start imagining yourself living there? Wandering the streets and living out some long-lost glory years?
That’s Midnight in Paris, a remarkably infectious fantasy by Woody Allen, in a nutshell. Allen wraps the time-traveling premise in just barely enough story and thematic heft to give the thing shape, but this movie is all about a sense of romantic wonder distinctly felt when visiting Paris.
Darius Khondji shoots the film in enticing, golden hues that glow from streetlights and glimmer off canals. It’s a beautiful pastry of warm nostalgia in cinematographic form, almost Wes Andersonian in its devotion to color warmth.
The movie is excellently-cast, starting with the lead. Owen Wilson captures the blend of stammering exasperation and bewilderment that Woody Allen made famous, but with much less neurosis. It’s a wide-eyed puppy dog performance of a man totally enamored with the world around him.
Meanwhile, the supporting cast is uniformly great. Michael Sheen is delightfully annoying as a pretentious academic, and Kurt Fuller and Mimi Kennedy make great overbearing parents-in-law. But the real treat is the cameos of time-traveling celebrities; there are litany of great turns — and significant joy in being surprised by them — but Adrien Brody as Salvador Dali and Alison Pill as Zelda Fitzgerald are absolute scene-stealers. Rachel McAdams is solid, too, even if she never should have been cast as a resentful fiancée — she’s too adorable.
It’s a fun movie, one of the Allen’s most charming, but ultimately a bit too slight to rank at the top of his pantheon. By leaning so hard into nostalgia, it compromises its ability to land its pathos with any sort of punch; but then if it was any less carefree, Midnight in Paris would be nowhere near as enjoyable.
- Review Series: Woody Allen
Is It Good?
Very Good (6/8)
Note: This review was published early in The Goods' history and is a candidate for an expanded review in the future. Please excuse brevity or inconsistencies in style.
Dan is the founder and head critic of The Goods. Follow Dan on Letterboxd. Join the Discord for updates and discussion.