Star Cast: Owen Wilson, Kathy Bates, Adrien Brody, Carla Bruni, Marion Cotillard, Rachel McAdams, Michael Sheen, the list is almost endless.
A middle-aged American couple visits Paris for business, their young daughter Inez (Rachel McAdams) and her fiancé, Hollywood screenwriter turned novelist, Gil Pender (Owen Wilson) also tag along to visit this romantic city. Gil is absolutely smitten by Paris, its gardens, boulevards, cobbled streets full of history, flea markets, historical monuments, small chapels and huge churches. He loves to walk the streets of this magical city, be it in sunshine or rain. His fiancée is not much impressed by the city and is at a loss to understand what has suddenly taken over her man. Meanwhile, she meets some old friends, one of whom she had a huge crush on. While Inez parties with her long time friend, Gil chooses to wander along the streets of Paris imagining this city in the ‘20s. On one such night, Gil, in a drunken stupor forgets the directions to his hotel and as he sits by a boulevard waiting for some help, a group of party-goers in a vintage car asks him to accompany them. It’s a magical party with history-turning stalwarts of bygone era, Ernest Hemingway, Cole Porter, the Fitzgeralds, Gertrude Stein, Pablo Picasso, Matisse, Salvador Dali, Man Ray, T. S Eliot, Paul Gauguin to name a few. He meets Picasso’s lovely mistress, Adrianna, and instantly falls in love with her.
The next morning when Gil wakes up in his hotel bed, he marvels at the recollection of night before. He wonders whether it was a reality or had he just been in a wonderful dream. So that night, he decides to wait again by the boulevard. Lo and behold, sharp at midnight, the vintage car appears and takes him to the magical era of the ‘20s. He again meets his friends and Adrianna. While Gil keeps the reality of his nocturnal visits a secret from his fiancée, Inez on the other hand is quite happy to be in the charming company of her male friend. In the end, Gil realizes that though the present is unsatisfying life cannot be lived in fantasy alone. He bids adieu to his love, Adrianna. In real life, he decides to break up with his fiancée to stay back and finish his novel in this enchanting city.
This romantic comedy is witty and fun. The viewers are transported into the magical history and the belle-époque. Though I am not a Woody Allen fan, I was charmed by this film. This has to be Woody Allen’s best movie by far.
“That’s what the present is. It’s a little unsatisfying because life is unsatisfying.”
A must watch.