Midnight In Paris (2011) *** 1/2

I love you Paris!

          After my hometown, Paris has got to be one of my favorite cities ever. Its magic, beauty, and great food have always made me feel romantic about it. That's coming from someone who hasn't been there yet! :( Luckily, there's Woody Allen's masterpiece, Midnight In Paris.
            Gil, a successful screenwriter, and his fiance, Inez, goes to Paris for a trip. However, Gil (Owen Wilson) wants to stay there, but Inez (Rachel McAdams) wants to go back home. She also discourages him from writing his first novel, and spends a lot of time with a charming, yet inaccurate "pseudo-intellectual" , who's played so brilliantly by Micheal Sheen, that you want to take him along for your vacations. Unless he's arguing with the tour guide and annoying everyone. Not a good idea, then.
         Feeling stressed out ( and drunk), our budding/doomed writer goes on a walk through the streets of the enchanted city. Through a bit of strange and wisely unexplained magic, he finds himself time traveled back to the golden days of Paris, when famed writers like Hemingway, and Fitzgerald were admiring Paris. A time when Picasso  was painting famous masterpieces for Gertrude Stein. A time when....okay, I'll stop. It's just that I know all of the famous people he meets when he goes back to his favorite period. Yeah!
        Soon, he falls in love with the magnificent Adriana, (Marion Cotillard) which makes big trouble with Inez. Especially, if she can't go back in time, which makes her think that Gil is becoming weird. After all, he has been walking a lot at midnight, and strange things have happened since last night. I could tell you more, but I want you to experience this charming, lovely little film for yourself.
        Everything about this movie is as perfect as it already can be. The music scores a truer portrait of Paris than most other wanna-bes, like you Monte Carlo. The cinematography, costume design, and set designs were very accurate for the time period of both now and then.
           However, the comedy in here might be a little too rich for some viewers. While I could identify most of the historical figures, (I'm a history fan), I only chuckled at 67% of the jokes. That's because Woody Allen wants the viewer to observe and feel the city of lights as it illuminates into their deepest translations of their souls. Yet, he should have the jokes more apparent, for this is after all a comedy, and comedies make people laugh.
          Yet, this is a very superb comedy. The reason why I personally love this flick is because for three reasons. My first reason is that all of the actors and actresses played their roles with such enchantment that the audience falls in love with their personalities. Owen Wilson, and his leading girlfriends can play comedy and romance at the same time with wonderful grace, and they convinced the audience much more than the stars in Water For Elephants. At the same time, all of the icons that Gil meets are played just as wonderfully by Kathy Bates, Alison Phil, Corey Stooll, Tom Hiddleston, Sonia Rolland, Adrien Brody, and many more. If they do have movies in Heaven, then all of the people played to amazement would have loved this dearly.
           My second reason is Woody Allen, whose script and direction combines the right amount of ideas and illusions that whenever the words are spoken, they seem to flow along with the music of Paris, as it echoes with joy. In fact, that's my final must-see reason. This film is a love poem of all the great and astounding sights of Paris, which makes it even more special.