Midnight in Paris

This Parisian travelogue was written and directed by Woody Allen. As has been the case recently, Mr. A. tends to mount his movies in some of Europe's loveliest cities and this one is no different. We have magnificent aerial shots of the City of Lights, including the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, Notre Dame Cathedral, the Arc de Triomphe, and the Seine. He also provides lovingly shot strolls in the Tuileries and down the Champs Elysees.

The story? Oh yeah, the story. Well it's a little fantasy about a screen- writer, played by Owen Wilson ("Hall Pass"), who is vacationing in Paris with his fiancée, played by Rachel McAdams ("Morning Glory"), and his future in-laws. He is a frustrated "real" writer and is feeling cornered, trapped and stifled. One magical night he goes for a walk by himself and is transported into the 20s, where, over the course of the next few nights, he meets:

• F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald
• Ernest Hemingway
• Pablo Picasso
• Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas
  
• Cole Porter
• Josephine Baker
• Salvador Dali
• Henri Matisse
  
• T. S. Eliot
• Paul Gauguin
  
• Edgar Degas
• Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (I know, I know, he wasn't in the 20s. Trust me.)
  

I think you can see that this film is mostly name dropping: Locations, restaurants, people, night clubs and the smug little thrill we get when we KNOW what the future holds for these people, even though they haven't a clue.

I got a kick out of seeing one of my favorite contemporary actors, Gad Elmaleh ("The Valet") as the hapless detective who tries to follow our hero on his nightly meanderings.