"Midnight In Paris" is more a short story than a novel. In
years gone by it would have been the lower half of a double bill, the
"B" movie. With the opening travelogue, which is surprising from a
director of Woody Allen's status and is expected from a first time
director, plus the ending credits eliminated, the movie running time
might be about 80 minutes though 88-94 minutes is given.

There
are two stories here with one taking place in the here and now with Gil
(Owen Wilson) a Hollywood screenwriter, his fiancee (Rachel McAdams)
and her parents, Kurt Fuller and Mimi Kennedy, who don't particularly
care for their future son-in-law. I wasn't too sure if his fiancee
liked, let alone, loved him!

The other story takes place in the past of the 'roaring 20s' and, for a few minutes, even further back. We meet Adriana, Marion Cotillard, who has been the mistress of Picasso (Marcial Di Fonzo Bo) and Hemmingway (Corey Stoll) and now has an eye for Gil. Along the way he meets,a nd talks to, Salvidor Dali (Adrien Brody), Scott (Tom Hiddleston) and Zelda (Alison Pil) Fitzgerald along with other luminaries from that era like Cole Porter, Man Ray and Luis Bunuel. Gil even gets to meet, talk and have Gertrude Stein (Kathy Bates) read a book he is reading and advise him how to improve it.

The concept is interesting and the idea that each generation feels another generation had the 'golden age' and the next one has missed it, offers excellent actors a playing field with a director/writer, Allen, who gets out of their way and a director of photography, Darius Khondji, who captures the beauty, mystery and city of love showing off Paris in all the splendor it has to offer.

One
of the negatives is the musical sound track which is usually a plus in a
Woody Allen film but here is distracting. Another negative, which I
very seldom complain about, is the brevity of the film which makes it a
minor, instead of a major film and Allen hasn't had too many of those
since the beginning of his career. Last, but not least, and this may be a
personal thing, I think it is time for Owen Wilson to either have his
nose fixed or use make up to cover the distracting 'bruise' as it takes
away from his performances.

With an all star cast Marion Cotillard, Kathy Bates and Paris are the standouts!