Midnight in Paris (2011)
Average Rating: 7.8/10
Reviews Counted: 204
Fresh: 190 | Rotten: 14
It may not boast the depth of his classic films, but the sweetly sentimental Midnight in Paris is funny and charming enough to satisfy Woody Allen fans.
Average Rating: 8.2/10
Critic Reviews: 46
Fresh: 44 | Rotten: 2
It may not boast the depth of his classic films, but the sweetly sentimental Midnight in Paris is funny and charming enough to satisfy Woody Allen fans.
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Average Rating: 4/5
User Ratings: 74,492
Movie Info
This is a romantic comedy set in Paris about a family that goes there because of business, and two young people who are engaged to be married in the fall have experiences there that change their lives. It's about a young man's great love for a city, Paris, and the illusion people have that a life different from theirs would be much better. It stars Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Marion Cotillard, Kathy Bates, Carla Bruni, among others. -- (C) Sony Classics
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Cast
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Owen Wilson
Gil -
Marion Cotillard
Adriana -
Rachel McAdams
Inez -
Kathy Bates
Gert -
Carla Bruni
Museum Guide -
Adrien Brody
Salvador -
Michael Sheen
Paul -
Corey Stoll
Ernest -
Mimi Kennedy
Helen -
Tom Hiddleston
Mr. Fitzgerald -
Kurt Fuller
John -
Alison Pill
Ms. Fitzgerald -
Nina Arianda
Carol -
Léa Seydoux
Gabrielle -
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All Critics (204) | Top Critics (46) | Fresh (190) | Rotten (14) | DVD (7)
It's fun and it's most welcome.
Top Critic"Midnight in Paris" is a bonbon to ease the craving for Allen's earlier, funnier films.
Midnight in Paris is a loving embrace of the city, of art and of life itself.
Our hero has found his groove among the Lost Generation and, for us, there's some amusement to be had in sharing Gil's thrills -- it's like stepping into a Classic Comics version of A Moveable Feast.
Midnight in Paris is charming and clever, at times wickedly astute and hopeful.
Woody Allen attracts promising players and does nothing with them.
It's charming and smart, and riddled with little joys.
It's attractive and easy to slip into, but [Allen] didn't put enough thought into the design, and it soon falls apart.
It lacks the humor of Annie Hall. It lacks the depth of Manhattan. But it manages to entertain, mainly as an homage to Paris - a romp through the city's intellectual and artistic history.
Souffle light and long on charm, one of Allen's wittiest and certainly his most literary
The blend of charm, magic, wit, and characterization come together to make this an engaging and intellectually stimulating experience. This is a great film and one of the best of the year thus far.
The fact that Allen never explains how Bender bends time is a wise choice, there's no bogging down of the narrative which allows the flick to keep skipping along at a effervescent pace.
Nostalgic fluff (for all its faux rejection thereof), but it's my brand of fluff
[A] work of genius... [B]ecomes the butt of its own gentle joke... one that wraps up a paralyzing self-awareness in a redemptive self-deprecation to, finally and splendidly, laugh with great good humor at itself.
As on-screen Allen stand-ins go, Wilson is definitely one of the more effective ones, recognizably channelling those Allen neuroses within his own established persona and distinct comic rhythms.
Woody Allen seemed to have lost his fizz as a filmmaker of late - and then he uncorked the sparkling Midnight in Paris, a comic fantasy with all the effervescence of vintage champagne.
Woody Allen's comedy Midnight in Paris is a superior late-period work precisely because it appears that age and wisdom have finally allowed him to discover that his romantic streak can acknowledge his realist/cynical side without succumbing to it.
An accomplished film that's as entertaining as it is deliciously offbeat.
Watchable, and on a certain level, it's quite enjoyable.
[Woody] Allen brings his fantasy to life with such affection and joy that he transports us into his dream come true as a shared fantasy.
A surprise treat from Woody Allen who has spent too much energy selling his films to mainstream audiences...
einai apo aytes tis tainies poy se xaideyoyne epibrabeytika sto kefali, h anamesa sta mpoytia, giati exeis akoysta ton Cole Porter kai ton F. Scott Fitzgerald
Allen wants you to love Paris as much as Gil does and wants to show you the magic, the romance and the spark the city holds for him.
Filled with light-hearted fancy and a dazzling cast, Woody Allen's latest film is a magical stroll through a magnificent city
Although the film suggests that we should enjoy the present for all it's worth, we have a great time enjoying this brief episode in a literate and beauty-filled past
The magic of Paris and the mystique of an era gone-by are the stars of Midnight in Paris - Woody Allen's best film for years
Audience Reviews for Midnight in Paris
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Movies Like Midnight in Paris
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- Ernest: I believe that love that is true and real, creates a respite from death. All cowardice comes from not loving or not loving well, which is the same thing. And then the man who is brave and true looks death squarely in the face, like some rhino-hunters I know or Belmonte, who is truly brave... It is because they make love with sufficient passion, to push death out of their minds... until it returns, as it does, to all men... and then you must make really good love again.
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- Paul: Nostalgia is denial - denial of the painful present... the name for this denial is golden age thinking - the erroneous notion that a different time period is better than the one ones living in - its a flaw in the romantic imagination of those people who find it difficult to cope with the present.
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- Gil: Adriana, if you stay here though, and this becomes your present then pretty soon you'll start imagining another time was really your... You know, was really the golden time. Yeah, that's what the present is. It's a little unsatisfying because life's a little unsatisfying.
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- Gert: The artist's job is not to succumb to despair but to find an antidote for the emptiness of existence.
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- Gil: That's what the present is. It's a little unsatisfying because life's a little unsatisfying.
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- Ernest: No subject is terrible if the story is true, if the prose is clean and honest, and if it affirms courage and grace under pressure.
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January 29, 2012:
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December 22, 2011:
Sony Pictures Classics Picks Up Woody Allen's Next Film"Nero Fiddled," a collection of four vignettes, is scheduled for a summer 2012 release.
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Foreign Titles
- Minuit à Paris (FR)
The story concerns a successful Hollywood screenwriter named Gil and his fiancee Inez on vacation in Paris with her parents. While there, Gil tries to work on a novel and do something more substantial with his life than just be a Hollywood hack. Through magical circumstances, he finds himself transported through a time slip at midnight to Paris during the 1920s, wherein he finds himself hanging out with his idols like F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and Pablo Picasso.
Inez, her friends, and her family all think he's nuts, but this just might be the best thing that's ever happened to Gil, and could very well be the spark he's been searching for to make his life complete.
This is utterly and completely Allen, charming, nostalgic, and fun. It's impossible to watch this and not feel moved, delighted, and overwhelmed with happiness. It's all laid on pretty thick, but it never comes off as sentimental or sickly sweet in a bad way. It's light and fun, and easy to fall in love with. Yeah, it's total wish fulfillment in a sense, but who cares? It's just an utter joy to experience.
It's got some typical Allen-isms, but the situation it presents is well done, creative, and fun. Allen's not known for having much visual flair or pizzaz with his work, but this film has some excellent cinematography and definitely applies as a visual work of art. The city looks excellent, and the 20s scenes really come alive thanks to his touch.
Owen WIlson does nice work as the happily perplexed Gil, doing the Woody role without coming off as a ripoff. Rachel McAdams is fine as Inez, but seems to get overshadowed. Then again, it's kinda is appropriate given the plot. The real stars though are the supporting players, namely Marion Cotillard as Picasso's mistress, Kathy Bates as Gertrude Stein, and Allison Pill as Zelda Fitzgerald. The others are good, but sometimes come off as more caricature and phony. Though I do think Corey Stoll's Hemingway is pretty fantastic.
I really don't have a whole lot of negatives. Yes, I did mention how some of the performances stick out, but that's not a complete deal breaker. The film had me guessing about how it would end, and I was partially right, but that also isn't a complete detriment to things. I think my biggest gripe is that the film had to end.
Give this one a shot. It helps if you're already a Woody fan, as that makes it easier to get into, but you don't have to be a fan to fall in love.