The last movie that I have not seen that is available on DVD and Blu-Ray is Midnight in Paris. This is Woody Allen’s latest comedy starring Owen Wilson.
Owen Wilson plays Gil a writer who is engaged to Inez (Rachel McAdams). Gil and Inez are in Paris with her parents on a business trip. While there they also meet a guy who Inez used to date. Since Gil doesn't get along with any of them, he feels like an outsider and decides to take a walk around the city while Inez is out with her friends.
While he is walking around, he sits down as the clock strikes midnight and he is picked up a horse and carriage and taken back to the 1920s. This is the time Gil feels is the golden age of Paris when all his idols lived in Paris. While in the 20s he meets F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, Pablo Picasso, and Salvador Dali among other famous people. He also meets a girl Adriana (Marion Cotillard) who he begins to fall in love with. Torn between two worlds, he must decide what he wants most, the world he is from or the world he has always fantasized about.
It seems like every year Woody Allen makes another movie. Lately, they have not been all that memorable, but this is his best one in a while. It has the typical Woody Allen witty and neurotic dialogue which Owen Wilson plays brilliantly. The supporting cast is also great; I especially liked Corey Stoll as Ernest Hemingway and Adrien Brody as Salvador Dali.
The biggest problem I had with this movie is there were a lot of jokes I didn't get because I am not that familiar with that time in history. I am sure the jokes about F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife would have been funnier if I had some idea of the actual history. But even not getting some of the jokes the movie still works. We all have that time and place in history that we romanticize about and think how great it must have been to live there and then.
If you are a fan of Woody Allen movies, you will love this one. But if you don't know much about that time in history, I would recommend watching it with an art or literary history aficionado. Besides Best Picture, it is nominated for 3 other awards - Best Art Direction and dual nominations for Woody Allen for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay. Its most likely win will be Best Original Screenplay.
