Midnight In Paris and Woody Allen’s Triumphant Return To Form

By Matt Baker

I love Woody Allen movies – Annie Hall is tied as my all-time favourite movie and I`ve loved most of his other movies I`ve seen.  But even I can admit that he had a bit of a dry spell through the late `90s and early 2000s (frankly, I`ve kind of avoided most of those movies, although I will get around to them at some point).  That is not to say he wasn`t still making some good movies; Sweet and Lowdown is great and Small Time Crooks is a fun little diversion.  But it is also the time of his biggest failures.  I haven`t seen Curse of the Jade Scorpion, but it is pretty widely considered flat out awful and by far his worst movie (which makes me kind of curious to watch it, actually).

But then something happened.  For his 35^th movie Woody moved filming to the UK and cast Scarlett Johansson in the lead role.  Match Point ended up being his best received movie in years, his first to make a profit in the US since Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), and Woody`s favourite of his own movies.  In the years since, he has filmed 6 of 7 movies outside the US, mostly to steadily increasing praise.  Vicky Christina Barcelona was wildly popular, with Penelope Cruz winning an Oscar for her role.  And now, a few years later, we get Midnight In Paris.  And boy, was it worth the wait.

In my not so humble opinion Midnight In Paris is Allen`s best movie in decades (Roz says it is her flat-out favourite Woody Allen movie).  Beautifully filmed in Paris, with great performances from all involved, Midnight had me laughing out loud all the way through.  Owen Wilson plays a contemporary hack Hollywood screenwriter who is captivated by romantic notions of Paris in the `20s.  One night while wandering drunk through the streets he is picked up in a vintage car and brought to a bar where is meets F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway (my favourite character in the movie).  As the film progresses we meet more famous artists and writers in this idealized Paris.  At the end, of course, Wilson realizes that the past always seems Golden, while the people of the time usually think of the era as boring and have their own golden age to fantasize about. 

This may not be the most original of concepts, but it is pulled off with such wit and charm that I couldn`t help but get carried away.  By the end of the film I longed to walk the streets of Paris in the rain, to sit in cafes and discuss art and philosophy while drinking wine and eating cheese and baguettes.  If you even remotely like Woody Allen movies you definitely need to see Midnight In Paris.  Hell, even if you don`t, you should still go see it.  Just make sure to start saving your money now, because after watching it you will be counting your pennies, trying to buy an open ended ticket to Paris.