I would like to begin my movie reviews with “Midnight in Paris,” written and directed by Woody Allen and starring Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, and Marion Cotillard. It was nominated for four Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Art Direction. I chose to start with this film because it stands out to me as a beautiful work of art, masterly crafted by one of the greatest living directors, who, at the age of 75, managed to create one of the finest movies of his career. It is not a film that should be missed.

When I first heard of this film, I did not know what to expect. I only knew a few things: it was set in Paris, directed by Woody Allen, starred Owen Wilson and Rachel McAdams, and was part romance, part fantasy. I pictured something similar to one of Allen’s earlier films, called “The Purple Rose of Cairo”, which also combined fantastical elements with romance. What I saw was immediately refreshing and exciting.

The film centers on an American film writer named Gil Pender (Owen Wilson) who has come to Paris for vacation along with his wife Inez (Rachel McAdams) and her family. From the beginning, we can easily see that Gil has a strong attachment to the city, so much so that he would even give up the glamorous life-style of Hollywood in order to move out to Paris and write novels instead. His wife strongly objects to this, and from this we can tell that there is a lot of tension between the two. After a time, Gil gets fed up with Inez and her friends and goes on a walk at night through the streets of Paris. He gets lost, and at the stroke of midnight, sees an old-fashioned car filled with people who urge him to climb aboard and come to a party with them. At the party, he runs into Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald, and sees Cole Porter playing the piano. Amazingly, Gil has gone back in time to Paris in the 1920’s. At this point, because I was not expecting it, the first thought that came to my head was that it was a brilliant concept. I could not think of any other film that dealt with time travel so simply. Allen does not waste any time with the mechanics of how Gil goes back in time to the 1920’s, unlike many other films that stress on this concept a great deal. And, to be honest, it is not necessary. We are now in Paris in the 1920’s, and we accept it as such.

A film with a concept such as this could easily have been a flop were it not done with painstaking attention to detail. Every piece had to be perfect in order for us to believe we were actually back in the 1920’s. And it was all there. The set pieces, the outfits, the lighting of Paris at night, the swinging jazz music, and, above all, the acting – all seemed to fit within my perception of this time period. Some of the actors looked and acted exactly as I might have pictured the people they portrayed, based on descriptions of their personalities or photographs I had seen. At times, Allen even uses hyperbole in order to emphasize certain traits of a character that were similar to what the actual person was known for. An example is when we see Ernest Hemingway chugging away at a bottle of wine, as he was known to be a heavy drinker in his time. In addition to Hemingway and the Fitzgeralds, Gil runs into several other famous people from the past, including: Pablo Picasso, Gertrude Stein, Salvador Dali, Luis Bunuel, Henri Matisse, and many more.

The acting of the main characters also contributed to the quality of the film. As the lead character, Owen Wilson played the role of the Woody Allen persona well, although in a less neurotic fashion than the character in many of Allen’s past films. Rachel McAdams, usually seen as a sweet and likable character in her movies, shows off her acting range by playing Wilson’s irritating and rude fiancee. Marion Cotillard was also quite good as the dazzling Adriana, Gil’s soon-to-be love interest from Paris in the 1920’s.

When I had finished watching the movie for the first time, I had to tell all of my friends and family to watch it. I knew that almost any kind of audience would enjoy some aspect of the film. My parents enjoyed the setting of the film in the 1920s, and the outfits that the characters wore. My friend, who is a film buff, loved the visual aspects of the film. And then there were the hopeless romantics that fall in love with the city of Paris, which seems to operate as a character all on its own throughout the movie. No matter who you are, there is something there for you to enjoy.

The message of the film is one that seemed to linger the most after I had seen it. The movie faces the flawed view that the past is always better than the present, mentioned by one of the characters in the film as “Golden Age Thinking.” The present, it says, can be unsatisfying. But it is only by fully living in the here and now that we can truly be happy. The film seemed to be related to the viewpoint that I mentioned earlier; that the classic film era was and always will be the greatest, and that modern films are lacking in quality. As one can tell from watching “Midnight in Paris,” however, that view is definitely one that needs to be reconsidered.