A lot of comparisons can be drawn between Woody Ellen’s latest film and his prior work.  The most obvious is The Purple Rose of Cairo, because of the cinematic connection.  I prefer to think of Midnight in Paris as more of Play it Again, Sam meets Paris, albeit with a quieter and understated humor.  Regardless of the comparisons you may draw, while Midnight in Paris will never be my favorite Woody Allen film, it now holds a strong position among the top five.

Before we are even officially introduced to the characters or the plot, Allen provides a brilliant series of shots within Paris which build the basis for the movie as a whole.  The meaning behind the sequence is easily missed by some, but it serves as a very effective introduction.  First we see Paris as a tourist-filled, deteriorating theme park of souvenirs, sightseers, and cookie-cutter cafes.  Then the rain falls, and the people retreat.  Without the people, and without the modern-day noise and trappings, the beauty of the city can be seen again.  Beautiful architecture, the romance of streetlamps lighting the curbs, iron fences, and trees…Paris has become Paris again.  Then the rain stops, and the people return, as does the modern world.

Enter Gil (Owen Wilson), a screenwriter who wants to use his time in Paris as inspiration to finish his novel, his first attempt at “real writing.”  Despite his success in Hollywood, he thinks of himself as a “hack,” churning out dreck for the big screen.  “Juvenile and forgettable?  Sounds like one of my rewrites” is how he refers to his craft in one scene.

Along for this trip to Paris are Gil’s fiancée Inez (Rachael McAdams) and her parents John (Kurt Fuller) and Helen (Mimi Kennedy).  A merger with a French company is the purpose behind the trip for John and Helen, and Inez and Gil have come along for the ride.  Inez and her family are clearly not fans of Paris of the French in general, and the heap derision on Gil’s affection for the city at every opportunity.  In fact, Gil finds himself somewhat disenchanted, realizing that Paris is not as he imagined it.  He yearns to find the Paris of yesterday: the 1920’s Paris, filled with excitement, the Lost Generation, and a passion and appreciation for the arts.  He sees that period as the heyday of Paris, where writing was a craft to be perfected, and where the arts were developing in new, original directions.  Individuality was celebrated, not crushed.

Soon Gil and Inez bump into their friends (really, Inez’s friends) Paul and Carol (Michael Sheen and Nina Arianda).  Gil clearly loathes Paul and his pompous, know-it-all lecturing (even if Gil does attempt to be pleasant regardless), while Inez and Carol are mesmerized by his “brilliance.”  In Paris to guest lecture, Paul is the typical Allen-crafted villain, the pseudo-intellectual who is willing to go so far as to argue with a tour guide (Carla Bruni).  A visit by the group to Versailles is a perfect representation, as some of the beautiful statues and architecture around them is hidden by the focus on Paul and his lecturing about how it had all been swampland at one time.  Trivia of knowledge, and trivia of modern life, obscure the beauty of the world.

In one way Gil is happy to have Paul and Carol in town, because after dinner that evening Inez joins the couple to go dancing, which leaves Gil free to roam the streets by himself.  Truthfully he doesn’t mean to roam quite so far; Inez’s prediction that he will immediately become lost and unable to find his way back to their hotel is completely on the mark.  Finally, after hours of wandering, Gil rests on a stone staircase as a clock strikes twelve, and Gil finds himself transported back to the 1920’s.  His jaw drops in awe and admiration as he is introduced to the likes of Cole Porter (Yves Heck), F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald (Tom Hiddleston and Alison Pill), and Ernest Hemingway (Corey Stoll).

Not only is Gil fascinated with these idols of his, but he finds them to be kindred spirits, the sort of friends he has been unable to find in his own world.  Returning to the world of yesteryear Hemmingway convinces Gertrude Stein (Kathy Bates) to look over Gil’s manuscript.  At her home, he meets Picasso (Marcial Di Fonzo Bo) and is immediately enchanted by Picasso’s current on-again-off-again lover Adriana (Marion Cotillard of La Vie en Rose).  His connection with Adriana is much deeper, and powerful, than whatever he might feel for Inez.  Through his time with his new friends, Gil begins to understand that in every era people long for “the good old days,” a period of the past when life seemed simpler.  “Maybe the present is a little unsatisfying because life is a little unsatisfying,” he opines.

Owen Wilson is an excellent choice by Allen, although I want to sit down and think about who might have been better at some point.  His funniest lines are delivered with a quiet confusion reminiscent of his first and best role as Dignan in Bottle Rocket.  Like Gil, Wilson is in some ways an actor for another era; he can be tolerable in the modern comedy, but when he’s given a role with depth and meaning his true ability as an actor shines through.

In the final moments of the film, Allen’s message seemed clear to me: any era can be the Belle Époque, but we can only see the beauty around us when we are with the right people…or the right person.