Midnight in Paris

I would love to wrap myself around the artistic simplicity of Woody Allen's dialogue. How he portrays everyday events, or what would seem like insignificant occurrences, in such an engaging matter is truly remarkable. Right there, that is pure brilliance. It is, also, the basis of his recent film, Midnight in Paris.

Like all other Woody Allen films, he provides a cozy, yet unlikely, feel of the city, mainly of his hometown of New York. Even in a city as vastly different, culturally, as Paris, he has the marvelous ability to project a comparison between the two. He shows the, dare-I-say, perfection of the usually large, crowded cities, making them appear to be the quietest, most serene places on earth.

The plot may sound familiar, where from I don't know, but watching it before your eyes (in beautiful Paris, which is a major plus), is truly a delight. Basically, Owen Wilson (playing the role of a struggling Hollywood screenwriter, the opposite of Woody Allen's archetype character) is magically transported back to the 1920s, in what his perception is the Golden Era. Once there, which happens like clockwork at midnight, he encounters prominent figures of that time, including F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway. To him, being there, immersed in the glamour of the Jazz Age, was an absolute dream.* However, he would soon learn that living in the past would eventually get boring, or, in other words, routine. Then, he would want to go even farther back, until he's at the dawn of time. But what's so enlightening there? Irrelevant. Moving on. Woody Allen expresses, through his glorious film, that ''nostalgia is an unhealthy trap that's very seductive", and that, ultimately, life is upsetting and you just have to keep breathing.
 *In an interview for Entertainment Weekly, Woody Allen states (so official) that his perception of the perfect era was the 1920s, the time of jazz and true elegance. I'm paraphrasing there.
Rather than ruining the wonderful surprise of the movie (unless you're an admirer of the director, as I am, then the movie will simply be a refreshing and wonderful treat) by revealing the entire plot point-by-point, allow me to simply say this: After you watch this movie, if you ever have the pleasure, not only will you experience a lightness of mood, but a kind of ethereal joy. (Aren't they the same? I'm not sure.) Either way, if you comprehend the talent of Woody Allen, you will definitely relate with my reaction to the film, and then some.

Also starring: Rachel McAdams, beautiful as ever, as Owen Wilson's stiff fiancee; Michael Sheen, as the man who captivates Rachel McAdams's character, and whom she falls for; Adrien Brody, ideal for his role as the abstract Salavador Dali, with his thin visage and strange air about him; and Marion Cotillard, as the breathtaking muse Owen Wilson's character become entranced by in his magical world of the 1920s.