Rated PG-13 for some sexual references and smoking.
Directed by Woody Allen
Starring Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Kurt Fuller
Oftentimes, we look back on the world as it used to be and long for those simpler times. We look at the past and it seems perfect, full of innocence and life; we wonder why the present can’t ever seem to be that way. This is the idea that Midnight in Paris sets out to capture.
Owen Wilson stars as Gil, a Hollywood screenwriter who travels to Paris with his fiancé (Rachel McAdams) in order to have time to write a novel (what he calls real writing). Gil is immediately taken in by the allure of Paris; everything is romantic, full of mystery and charm. It’s clear from early on that Gil is a dreamer; He yearns for the days long past, when artists, writers, poets and philosophers walked the streets and convened in bars, sharing knowledge and growing in wisdom.
And then there’s his fiancé, Inez, and her parents, Helen and John, who revel in belittling Gil’s artistic aspirations and stomping on his dreams. They want him be realistic and return to rewriting scripts in Hollywood, something that brought Gil no contentment but tons of cash. Gil seems very close to giving in to them until he is inexplicably transported to the 1920’s Paris of his dreams.
It is here that this movie will start to shine for some people but also where Midnight in Paris will start to lose people. Because the meat of this movie consists of Gil exploring Paris and meeting his heroes—people like Ernest Hemingway and Pablo Picasso. The actors do a great job portraying their characters, Corey Stoll as Hemingway in particular had me laughing out loud. But most of the comedy comes from seeing the historical figures represented exactly how they have been described, so the more you know about the artists’ personalities, the more enjoyable this movie is. I found it pretty hilarious, but there’s a lot to miss here if you don’t have prior knowledge of the important artists and writers of this era. The way I see it, if the idea of someone from the future talking time travel with a group of surrealists makes you smile, this movie is for you, if not, skip it.
Midnight in Paris is jam-packed full of charm, but if you remove the jokes concerning the artists, there isn’t much there. The rest of the story is sufficient, but weak. The journey that Gil takes is fun, but the realizations he makes along the way are conclusions that the audience draws in the first ten minutes of the film.
I enjoyed Midnight in Paris for the dollar I spent to Redbox it; It’s a great homage to the arts and literature giants of the early 1900’s, but the story is far too flat to earn it a Theatre Worthy.
SHOULD KIDS SEE IT?
Light language and references to sexual encounters are the worst that this movie has to offer, but the main reason I wouldn’t let a kid see Midnight in Paris is that most of it will probably go way over their heads.
Conversation Starter
Three Simple Questions (with Answers You May Be Looking for):
Q: What’s the message/theme of this movie?
Midnight in Paris is the story of a man who finds himself unable to act in the present because he idealizes the past.
Q: How do you suppose we—as serious Christ-followers—should react to this movie?
Isaiah 43:18-19 says: Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.
It is really easy to get caught up in the past. The past is there to teach us, to remind us where we came from, but God wants us to live in the present. It is always worthwhile to remember what God has done for you in the past, but don’t let that distract you from what God is doing for you now.
Q: How can we move from healthy, Bible-based opinions about this movie to actually living out those opinions?
Like I said before, it is easy to get stuck in the past.
What in your past is keeping you from moving forward?
What will it take for you to let that go?
What is God doing in your life now?
