While watching the film, I imagined myself eating a bunch of colorful macaroons. Midnight in Paris is one delicious eye candy both as a film and as a story. The opening sequence alone establishes old Paris romance: a city so filled with beauty, art, and culture. I'm a big francophile so there goes the bias.

Woody Allen conquers the city of light with a surrealist tale that revisits the 1920s literary scene of Paris. Gil Pender (Owen Wilson) and his fiance Inez (Rachel McAdams) are on vacation along with her wealthy, right-wing parents. Gil and Inez couldn't be more different from each other. While Gil takes pleasure from walking the streets of Paris, Inez, on the other hand, prefers luxurious endeavors and other upscale tourist activities. The pair is joined by another couple who are as obnoxious as Inez. One evening, Gil separates himself from the pack by taking a walk home until he got lost in the streets. He sees an odd-looking car stop in front of him. The people inside the car invites Gil to join them, and the succeeding events take him to a nostalgic adventure of Paris in the roaring 20s.

As a Literature student, I was laughing with excitement all throughout the film. Gil encounters famous modernist writers and surrealist artists such as the Fitzgeralds, Gertrude Stein, Ernest Hemmingway, Pablo Picasso, and Salvador Dali. I can't help but imagine how Woody Allen must have enjoyed writing the script from the hyper Zelda to the poetic Hemmingway. I enjoyed every minute of Gil's fascination to the point that I forgot to care how this could have happened. In the end, the fantasy stood for itself and it didn't matter why or how it happened. I was delighted to watch a film about Paris and the crazy world of artists.

I admire Woody Allen's postmodernism and how he creatively explored the notion of nostalgia. I am eternally interested how modern society is so enamored by the past, how we remember a time in the past with so much longing, and how we wish to be living in the past again. Gil Pender embodies nostalgia but alas so are the people he encountered. It doesn't matter what era it is, people are always longing for something other than the present. If this was my story, I'd probably be revisiting the swinging 60s.

The only thing I wasn't particularly pleased was Owen Wilson's acting. I knew right from the get-go that he's supposed to be the Woody Allen character (because there is always one in Allen's films). I just found it bizarre and bothersome how he sounded 110% like Woody. I couldn't help but think it was a dubbed version. Other than that, Midnight in Paris is quite a dreamy film. 

If you're up for a tour, a fantasy, and some light dose of inspiration; this is definitely your kind of movie.

5 out of 5