Welcome back to Movie Recaps. Today I will show you a comedy,
fantasy, romance film from 2011, titled Midnight in Paris. Spoilers ahead! Watch out and take care.
Gil Pender is a successful Hollywood screenwriter trying to make it as a novelist,
but he is struggling to finish his debut novel. He travels to Paris with his fiancé Inez and her
wealthy Republican parents, and constantly talks about how he would love to live in this city,
especially while it rains, and how much he wishes he could have been here in the 20s,
which he considers the golden age. Inez, however, only enjoys it as a vacation and
has no interest in moving out of the US, she also thinks his ambitions are just a delusional dream.
One day, while having lunch with Inez's parents, they come across a friend of hers called Paul and
his wife Carol, who invites them to go sightseeing with them. Gil doesn't really want to go, but Inez
accepts anyway, and they argue about it later when they return to their room. Inez thinks Paul
is brilliant and that Gil should give him his book for critique, but Gil thinks this guy is nothing
but a pseudo-intellectual. Hanging out with Paul becomes unbearable for Gil. The guy never stops
talking no matter the subject, believing himself to be an expert in anything even if his commentary
is rather questionable. He is so pedantic that he even argues with a tour guide at the Musée Rodin,
and Gil hates him, but Inez adores him. One night, she goes dancing with Paul, but not wanting to
deal with him anymore, Gil decides to walk back to the hotel. Since he is a little bit drunk,
he ends up getting lost and stops to rest at the doorsteps of some building when a nearby clock
strikes midnight. At that moment, an old car pulls up beside him and the passengers inside, who are
also dressed in old-fashioned outfits, invite him to join them. Gil gets in after some hesitation,
and eventually, they make it to a party where Gil meets some notable people from the 1920s,
like Cole Porter, and Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald. Gil thinks all the names are a coincidence,
even when they tell him the party is for Jean Cocteau, but plays along anyway. When Zelda gets
bored, she convinces Scott and Gil to leave with her, and together they go to the Bricktops, where
they see Josephine Baker dancing - it is then that Gil finally accepts he is traveled back in time to
the 1920s. Afterward, they go to a café, where Gil gets to meet Ernest Hemingway and Juan Belmonte.
He asks Hemingway if he would read his novel, but Hemingway refuses, saying that he should never let
another writer critique his stuff. He does accept, however, to show his manuscript to Gertrude Stein,
which excites Gil to no end, so he rushes out of the café to go back to the hotel to
pick up his book, but he stops midway when he realizes they didn't agree on a place to meet.
Gil goes back to the building he has come from, but instead of the café,
there is a laundromat, which means he has come back to the present. The next morning, while Inez
tells her about the fun night she had, Gil is lost in a daze, not believing what has happened to him.
He tries to tell her about it, but of course, she doesn't believe him.
They go shopping with Inez's mom, who indirectly calls Gil cheap, and when it starts raining,
Gil tries to get them to walk under the rain together, but they hate the idea.
Later in the evening, Gil takes his manuscript and Inez to the spot on the doorsteps where
he was picked up last night, wanting to show his fiancé that his time-travel story is true. As time
passes and nobody shows up, Inez gets bored of waiting and leaves, but Gil doesn't quite give up
yet. His perseverance is rewarded when the clock strikes midnight and the same old car arrives,
this time with Hemingway as its passenger, who tells Gil what makes love and passion real,
making him doubt his relationship with Inez. The two men arrive at their destination,
where Gil is introduced to Gertrude Stein, Pablo Picasso and his lover Adriana. After scolding
Pablo for not representing Adriana properly in his painting, Gertrude takes Gil's manuscript
and reads the first few lines aloud, prompting Adriana to say she is already hooked on the story.
Gertrude promises she will read the whole book later, but now she must talk to Hemingway, so
Gil gives them some privacy and joins Adriana in another room, where they bond over their love for
the older times and the arts. She tells him about all the famous artists she has dated and confesses
she thinks Picasso is a very difficult man, she also encourages Gil to follow his dream to come
live in Paris. When Gil returns to his hotel room a few moments later, he can't stop thinking
about all the celebrities he has met, but most importantly, he can't stop thinking about Adriana.
The next day, he goes shopping with Inez and her mother again and stops at an antique store when
he hears some of Porter's music playing. He gets to chat with the clerk, Gabrielle, who is also a
big fan. Afterward, they go to the museum with Paul, who continues to pedantically talk a lot.
Inez doesn't let Gil cut in with his own opinions, but he finally gets the chance
to when they find Picasso's painting of Adriana, impressing everyone by repeating the criticism
Gertrude offered last night. From then on, Gil starts going back to the 20s every night,
giving Inez the excuse that he goes on walks for inspiration and this is helping him write more.
Inez doesn't care and spends the nights hanging out with Paul, but her parents are suspicious,
and her dad hires a private investigator to follow Gil around. Gil attends tons of different
parties with various famous artists and his connection to Adriana grows stronger every night,
especially after she and Picasso break up. One evening, they find Zelda about to jump into the
river because she thinks Scott doesn't love her and she doesn't like the way she looks.
They convince her not to do it, and Gil offers her some Valium, which he has been carrying around
because he has been having panic attacks that he is sure will go away after the wedding.
Adriana is disappointed to hear he is engaged and asks him about his fiancé, but when Gil starts
telling her about Inez, he realizes they don't have much in common and their relationship is in
shambles. Adriana leaves after this conversation, giving out some awkward excuse, and Gil stays at
the bar with Salvador Dalí, Man Ray, and Luis Buñuel, who are surrealists and have no trouble
believing he is from the future. Dalí tells him he has sad eyes, and Gil explains he looks sad
because he is struggling with being engaged yet loving a woman from the past at the same time.
The following morning, he tries to get Inez to stay in bed with him for some intimacy, but she
is more interested in not being late for her meeting with Paul. Instead of joining them, Gil
visits the tour guide from the museum that Paul corrected the other day and asks her about Rodin's
relationships, hoping to get some inspiration to solve his love troubles, but there are no
magical answers waiting for him. Unaware that the detective Inez's father hired is following around,
Gil continues to go on his night escapades in the 20s, and one evening, he learns from Gertrude that
Adriana has flown to Africa with Hemingway. She also tells him that she has read his book and
while he has some good ideas, he needs to stop being such a defeatist. When the weekend comes,
he ignores Inez's plans because he wants to stay inside writing. He does go out once, however,
to visit Gabrielle's shop and buy a Porter record from her. He also stops by a bookstall
and finds Adriana's old diary, which he gives to a translator so he can find out what it says.
After expressing her love for Paris and chatting about her affairs with various famous artists,
Adriana confesses that she is in love with Gil and has had a dream of him gifting her earrings before
making love to her. Inspired by this revelation, he goes back to his hotel room to change into
nicer clothes and prepare a gift for Adriana, which consists of stealing some earrings from
his fiancé. But when he's about to leave, Inez and her parents show up, having canceled their plans
because her dad has chest pain. While waiting for a doctor, Inez finds it suspicious that he
is all dressed up when he supposedly spent all day writing, so he makes up some excuse about having
taken a shower to think better. She also realizes her earrings are gone and believes the maid stole
them, so before she calls the hotel employees to report her, Gil rushes to the bathroom and
pretends to have found the earrings there. He then goes to buy earrings at a proper shop,
and when midnight comes, he takes his revised manuscript to Gertrude and asks her about Adriana,
so Gertrude tells him what party he may find her at. Gil goes after her and asks her to leave
with him so they can talk privately about their feelings, but before leaving, he stops by Buñuel
and tells him the plot idea of what would become "The Exterminating Angel". Gil and Adriana go
for a walk, and Gil takes the chance to kiss her before giving her the earrings, which she loves.
Suddenly, a horse-drawn carriage comes down the street, and a richly dressed couple invites them
to ride with them. Like the car Gil usually takes, this carriage travels through time and takes them
to the Belle Époque, which is Adriana's golden age. After dancing and drinking at the Maxim's
Paris restaurant, they visit the Moulin Rouge, where they meet Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Paul
Gauguin, and Edgar Degas. While discussing art with them, Gauguin tells Gil that he thinks the
new generation has no imagination and all three of them agree that the Renaissance was the best era.
When they offer Adriana a job to design clothes for the ballet, Gil takes her aside to speak
privately. Adriana doesn't want to go back to the 20s, because this is the perfect era for her,
the 20s are the present and therefore dull. Gil finally confesses his from a different present and
that, thanks to having heard the artists talking about the Renaissance, he is having a little
epiphany right now: if they stay in the past, that past will become the present and therefore it will
become dull as well. The present is always a little unsatisfying because life itself
is always a little unsatisfying, and if he wants to write something worthwhile, he has to get rid
of his illusions. Adriana doesn't get it and still wants to stay here, so she kisses him for the last
time as a goodbye. Gil goes back to Gertrude, who is very happy with the changes he's made to his
manuscript and thinks he is on the right track for a great novel. She also informs him Hemingway has
read the book as well and thinks it is good, but he has one plot suggestion: he can't believe the
protagonist can't see his fiancé is cheating on him with the pedantic guy. Since those characters
are obviously based on his personal experience, hearing this upsets Gil deeply, and the next
morning he confronts Inez about it. She denies it at first, but since Gil doesn't believe her,
she ends up admitting that is true, she did cheat on Gil with Paul. This is the final proof of them
not being good for each other, so Gil decides not to go back to the USA and break up with her.
As he is leaving the room, Inez's parents arrive, and her father tells her he knew Gil was up to
something because the detective he hired saw him get into a mysterious car every night.
They never learned where he went though, because the detective suddenly disappeared:
it turns out the man got stuck in the Versailles of Louis XIV. Gil spends the rest of the day
walking around Paris, and when night falls and the clock strikes midnight, he bumps into Gabrielle
by the Seine. He offers to walk her home, which she accepts, especially when it starts raining.
The two of them leave together, bonding over their shared love for Paris in the rain.