Midnight in Paris

I already mentioned on Facebook that I liked this movie, but I didn't say why.  The movie has a dash of wish fulfillment (who hasn't wanted to be able to engage with their long-dead heroes?), some amusing brief character sketches, and an over-all framework that actually works.  Meeting with people of the past has been done before in writing and in film (the Odyssey, Dante's Inferno, and the Riverworld series take the people OUT of their native environment; this movie and many time-travel stories allow them to be viewed in their native time), and their is a danger of getting carried away by dumping too many past characters into the story to the detriment of the main character.  In this movie, the other characters are enjoyable but actually bring the main character into better focus.

My wife Jocelyn loves movies with costumes and scenery from other places and times, but she was a bit worried at the beginning that the director seemed obsessed with displaying too many Parisian vistas.  Do not fear, this does not degenerate into a family travel album.

My favorites in this movie were Adriana (Cotillard), Hemingway (Stoll), and Dali (Brody).   I never noticed how much Owen Wilson resembled Woody Allen before, but he seemed to absorb Allen's character in a younger body.