Today was a day off from the film festival so I thought, what better way to spend the day than going to see a movie? Ha ha I'm probably going to regret that by next Sunday... It was my mum's day off so I thought we would go and see Midnight in Paris, the latest Woody Allen movie.
The best way to describe this movie would probably be either "delightful" or "best advertisement for Paris since Paris Je Taime was released". The entire movie is just beautifully shot and casts a soft, romantic light on the city of love. I really, really wanted to go there after seeing the first 3 minutes, and the rest of the movie did nothing to dissuade me.
Owen Wilson is the character that Woody would've played in his younger days. A writer whose original novel is suffering from a lack of inspiration while he spends time on his work as a hired Hollywood hack, pumping out scripts for blockbuster movies. His fiancee is beautiful and smart but from the get go you realise these two don't have much in common and you wonder why Gil continues with the relationship, but he seems incapable of seeing the reality of the situation. He just seems to be a bit lost. Tagging along with her parents on a trip to Paris, Gil is keen to avoid the stereotypical sightseeing (and the disapproving parents in law) and explore the nostalgia and find his muse. But Ines' agenda is very different and eventually Gil gets away on his own. This triggers a strange occurrence whereby Gil magically travels back in time to the 1920s at the stroke of midnight. Here he miraculously meets his literary and artistic heroes and finally begins to enjoy himself.
Warning - the below does contain a bit of a spoiler about the ending of this movie so don't read any further if you don't want to know. If you like gentle, mature comedies or are a Woody Allen fan, you should see this movie.
Once this gets going, the whole thing is just delightful. Working out who the icons are (and who they're played by!) is fun and the music, costumes and scenery just all blend into a magical whole. For me though the best part was the underlying message of the movie, which is something I've been musing on a little bit of late (see earlier posts on nostalgia). We all look back fondly on the past, and a lot of the time there can be a tendency to think that "things were better back then" or wish that you were still living a certain type of life. But if we actually did go back and live in that time or space, it probably wouldn't live up to the fantasy. The theory of this movie is that it is because life itself is unsatisfactory, so we would rather live in any other time where we feel more comfortable or satisfied. But if we can realise this, we really are better off in the present time and making the most of where we are now. I really agree with this, I liked it and I recommend it.
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