Freemind

Midnight in Paris

The souffle rises as it has not done for many years in Woody Allen's new film Midnight in Paris, which (incredibly) is already the most commercially successful of his career. It's a funny, slight comedy whose time-travel conceit is managed effortlessly.

The modern setting is luxury-tourist Paris, five-star hotel Paris, the Paris routinely available to wealthy and middle-aged visitors, and the film begins with a montage tribute of picture-postcard images to Allen's trad-jazz score.

Owen Wilson takes the proxy-Woody role as Gil, a disillusioned Hollywood screenwriter who comes on a tense trip to Paris with his gorgeous fiancee Inez (Rachel McAdams) and her parents. Idolising the bohemian Paris of the 1920s, Gil finds that the city has revived his dormant longing to be a serious novelist. One night, while strolling alone in the city, Gil sees a mysterious antique vehicle roll up and its champagne-swilling occupants urge him to jump in. He travels back in time with them to a party where he encounters F Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and Cole Porter – and falls in love with Picasso's mistress, played by Marion Cotillard.

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