MOVIE REVIEW - Midnight In Paris

Sometimes little movies have a big story.

Legendary movie maker Woody Allen has made a new "Allen" flick, Midnight In Paris. Understanding that Allen is an acquired taste, his movies are not for everyone. Always quirky, and off beat and always with that "Woody Allen" feel. I am not a fan of all of his flicks, but you always seem to know when you are watching one. Midnight In Paris is a small gem in this summer of big box office budget busters.

MIP is the story of Gil (Owen Wilson) and Inez (Rachel McAdams). They are a young couple from California who tag along with her parents as they take a trip to Paris. Inez and her family are typical snobs, and Gil is a writer that is romantically taken with Paris. He wants to move to Paris like in the old days of lore and write his great novel there. Inez does not. Gil feels he was born too late, and feels he relates better to an era gone by, rather than the modern day he lives in.

Then MIP takes a weird, but fun twist. One drunken night at midnight, he meets up with his heroes of The Expatriate Era in Paris in the 1920's. He ends up at a party with F. Scott Fitzgerald, Cole Porter, Ernest Hemingway, and countless others who lived in Paris after WWI. He befriends them and starts to live in their world every night at midnight. He has been transported somehow back in time. Will this "revelation" help him with the clarity he needs to help him write his novel, or make the right choices in his life? That's Midnight In Paris. Sound strange? It is, it's Woody Allen.

Wonderfully written, most creative, really snappy dialogue, and interesting casting choices put Wilson and McAdams in roles they've never attempted before. Both are terrific, and so is the supporting cast. Wilson especially is really great. Usually limited to mindless roles in comedies and action flicks, he shines here and shows he really can do this. Mix in a fun soundtrack that is so typical of Allen. And a fabulous backdrop of Paris itself, and you have a real fun 90 minute getaway at the movies. This movie will find a very, and I mean very limited audience, but no matter. Midnight In Paris is a fun reason to go to the movies.

Woody Allen after all this time, can still put on a real nice movie, and this one is. Midnight In Paris is all that is good about an Allen film, and good fun.