Midnight in Paris
2011
****
Director: Woody Allen
Cast: Kathy Bates, Adrien Brody, Carla Bruni, Marion Cotillard, Rachel McAdams, Tom Hiddleston, Léa Seydoux, Michael Sheen, Corey Stoll, Owen Wilson
For now, Woody Allen returns to form with this lovely mix of comedy, fantasy and romance about a man who lives in nostalgia. Gil Pender is a successful Hollywood screenwriter who dreams of becoming a serious novelist. During a trip to Paris with his fiancée, each midnight he is magically transported back in time to his favourite era, the 1920s, where he can seek advice from some of his biggest writing idols, such as Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein and T.S. Eliot. Allen's Academy Award winning screenplay features his trademark selection of intellectual, over-privileged people, but this time they are likeable. The characters inhabit a sweet and tightly plotted story which doesn't rely on zingy oneliners.
