An Exquisite Evening with "Midnight in Paris"

It took a while for Midnight in Paris to reach worldwide release, but boy did I pick the perfect evening to finally see Woody Allen's latest film.  The theater contained a few scattered couples all over the age of twenty and most of them being much older except for two girls and a boy in the very back row who were roughly twelve years old.  What drove them to a Sony Pictures Classics film I do not know.  Maybe they thought the theater would be empty and they could goof off.  Maybe they were given an assignment to see the film for a history or literature class due to the glimpse into the lives of some of these subjects' most influential individuals.  No matter what the case, they would not keep their mouths shut, and in response neither would anyone else in the theater.  People shouted "Shut up!" and "Could you please be quiet?!" several times, but no one got up to have an employee come in and do something about the problem.  This can be explained by the fact that Woody Allen's imaginative storytelling and incredibly intriguing characters kept everyone in their seats despite the rude and annoying children behind them.
Midnight in Paris follows Owen Wilson, in a role that shows his real potential as an actor (not like foolish comedies such as Hall Pass), as Gil Pender, a Hollywood screenwriter who is dissatisfied with the focus of his career and wishes to branch out into writing novels.  While in Paris with his fiancee, Inez, played by a convincing but slightly annoying Rachel McAdams, Gil begins to feel distant from his significant other who has absolutely no interest in his feelings or ideas, so he separates from Inez and her family to explore the beautiful city at night.  On one drunken evening while looking for his hotel, Gil is invited into an old looking car and escorted to a party.  Here he meets a man named Scott Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda.  At first he just assumes this to be a coincidence even though the man playing piano at the party seems to have written the music himself.  Then he is led to a pub where the group encounters none other than Ernest Hemingway.  Gil goes along with everything, since his dream is to live in 1920s Paris, and asks Hemingway to take a look at his novel, which instead is passed along to Gertrude Stein.
Gil makes an attempt at bringing his fiancee along for the adventure the next night, but she leaves after waiting impatiently (certainly no Wedding Crashers chemistry here).  Then the clock strikes twelve and Gil enters the old fashioned car on his own.  While in the company of Gertrude Stein, he meets more significant people of the time such as Pablo Picasso and his mistress, Adriana, played by the beautiful Marion Cotillard.  Gil takes a liking to her and spends more and more time with her throughout his visits to the past, but soon learns that he is not alone in the quest for another time.
Woody Allen explores the recurring argument of which period in time was most remarkable and how people constantly chase after a different age or wish for a better era.  With advancements in technology taking away every mystery about every detail one could think of, even something as simple as when a movie or album came out, people tend to stop thinking on their own and just go to their Mac or Blackberry for the answer.  However, even those who lived in what some may say was the Golden Age believe otherwise and look back on the generation before them with jealousy.  Allen's characters portray a genuine struggle for another time as well as the complete opposite opinion, in addition to the enthusiasm evident in particular periods (especially Adrien Brody's hysterical rendering of Salvador Dali).  Inez and her parents, who seem to have no similarities with Gil, are the typical rich and spoiled Beverly Hills family who, along with Inez's friend Paul, think they know everything about the past, but don't truly care about what they think they know.  Some standout scenes include Gil proving Paul completely wrong.
As technically cluttered as our generation may be, it's impossible to travel back to a time deemed more noteworthy or "golden."  However, if one can find someone with the same passion that exists today, life can be a lot more enjoyable.  I doubt the twelve-year-olds got any of this out of the film, but it's clear that they should have been next door watching The Hangover: Part II.  I hate to sound like Inez's snotty parents, but a little culture could do them some good.