Midnight in Paris
Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: May 20, 2011 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
81
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 40 Critic Reviews
Positive:
40
Mixed:
0
Negative:
0
Watch Now
Stream On
Stream On
Buy on
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Expand

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallJun 8, 2011
Allen eventually gets to the heart of this matter: the allure and danger of nostalgia. Read full review
100
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleMay 27, 2011
A movie that's loving and wistful and often hysterically funny. Read full review
100
ObserverRex ReedMay 17, 2011
In a film so ripe with temptations for posturing, exaggeration and satirical overacting, nobody is anything less than natural, unpretentious and funny as hell. Read full review
90
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternMay 19, 2011
In Woody Allen's beguiling and then bedazzling new comedy, nostalgia isn't at all what it used to be - it's smarter, sweeter, fizzier and ever so much funnier. Read full review
90
The New York TimesA.O. ScottMay 19, 2011
It is marvelously romantic, even though - or precisely because - it acknowledges the disappointment that shadows every genuine expression of romanticism. Read full review
90
MovielineStephanie ZacharekMay 19, 2011
The best Allen movie in 10 years, or maybe even close to 20 - is all about that idea: Reckoning with the past as a real place, but also worrying about the limits of nostalgia. Read full review
90
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinMay 16, 2011
This supernatural comedy isn't just Allen's best film in more than a decade; it's the only one that manages to rise above its tidy parable structure and be easy, graceful, and glancingly funny, as if buoyed by its befuddled hero's enchantment. Read full review
90
Boxoffice MagazinePete HammondMay 12, 2011
Woody Allen's time-travelling comedy Midnight In Paris is a valentine to Paris and an absolute delight. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyMay 12, 2011
Darius Khondji's cinematography evokes to the hilt the gorgeously inviting Paris of so many people's imaginations (while conveniently ignoring the rest), and the film has the concision and snappy pace of Allen's best work. Read full review
88
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottJun 10, 2011
A lovely jaunt that ends up becoming one of Allen's most enjoyable films, start-to-finish, in years. Read full review
88
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie RickeyJun 2, 2011
Midnight in Paris is not a perfect movie - as in "Julie & Julia" one senses its creator's impatience to leave the bleached-out present for the colorful past. But it is warm and effortless, qualities that make it embraceable. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsMay 26, 2011
Led by Wilson and Cotillard, the ensemble makes the most of the material that works, and makes the best of the rest of it. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertMay 25, 2011
Owen Wilson is a key to the movie's appeal. He makes Gil so sincere, so enthusiastic. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter TraversMay 19, 2011
What's fresh about Midnight in Paris is the way he (Allen) identifies with Gil's idealization of the past, of the Paris that represented art and life at their fullest. Read full review
83
Portland OregonianShawn LevyJun 2, 2011
Allen's filmmaking technique isn't what it once was, true. But at age 75 he still manages to keep a spry pace going even if something less than impeccable craft hobbles the photography and editing. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicKerry LengelMay 26, 2011
A delicious trifle for anyone who has ever dreamt of bantering about the cinema with Luis Buñuel or lounging at the piano to hear Cole Porter sing "Let's Do It." Read full review
80
Chicago ReaderJ.R. JonesMay 26, 2011
Woody Allen's bad movies often seem to be taking place in some kind of upper-class fantasy world, which may be the reason I find this upfront fantasy to be his funniest, most agreeable comedy in years. Read full review
80
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierMay 20, 2011
As in "Purple Rose," the film works best when tweaking the disparate worlds thrown together, though "Midnight" is frothier, and so Wilson shines. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranMay 19, 2011
With Midnight in Paris, Allen has lightened up, allowed himself a treat and in the process created a gift for us and him. Read full review
80
Time OutKeith UhlichMay 17, 2011
This is prime Woody Allen - insightful, philosophical and very funny. Read full review
80
Village VoiceKarina LongworthMay 17, 2011
The latest in a long line of actors playing a "Woody Allen type" in a Woody Allen film, Wilson bends his own recognizably nasal Texan drawl into an exaggerated pattern of staccatos and glissandos that's obviously modeled on the writer/director's near-musical verbal cadences. Read full review
80
SalonAndrew O'HehirMay 13, 2011
Allen seems to be paying attention in a way he hasn't always done in recent films, and has found a way to channel his often-caustic misanthropy, half-comic fear of death and anti-American bitterness into agreeable comic whimsy. Read full review
80
VarietyPeter DebrugeMay 12, 2011
Like a swoony lost chapter from "Paris, je t'aime" agreeably extended to feature length. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesJun 9, 2011
Quite simply, Midnight in Paris is charming – très charmant, to ape the argot of the locals. I say that somewhat tongue-in-cheek, as this is very much an outsider's valentine to the City of Lights. Read full review
75
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsJun 10, 2011
A fanciful French cousin to Allen's "Zelig" and "The Purple Rose of Cairo," yet the fulfilled wish for a better life is high-concept absurdity without high-anxiety guffaws. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick GroenJun 2, 2011
Certainly, his (Allen) work here feels effortless, and that feather-light touch gives the picture its charm – modest but real. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezJun 2, 2011
Midnight in Paris initially seems like a departure for Allen, but the prevailing theme blends right in with the rest of his canon. Read full review
75
NPRElla TaylorJun 1, 2011
But lo! Isn't that Owen Wilson, blond and goyische to the gills, yet faithfully replicating the put-upon slump of the Allen shoulders, the quavering stammers about art vs. success, literature vs. Hollywood? Read full review
75
Orlando SentinelRoger MooreJun 1, 2011
Souffle-light and long on charm. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy BurrMay 28, 2011
A sweet-natured trifle, as flavorful and as thin as a crepe. Read full review
75
Washington PostAnn HornadayMay 27, 2011
Sheer pleasure to watch, full of rich visuals and felicitous comic turns. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerMay 21, 2011
A sweet, not altogether satisfying variation on the fantasy-becomes-reality conceit he (Allen) used in his Depression-era "The Purple Rose of Cairo." Read full review
75
New York PostLou LumenickMay 20, 2011
Owen Wilson turns out to be the best Woody Allen surrogate by far. Read full review
75
USA TodayClaudia PuigMay 19, 2011
The familiar dialogue here makes one long for something closer to the edginess of "Manhattan" or the offbeat humor of "Vicky Cristina Barcelona." Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliMay 19, 2011
The film is constructed in such a way that suspension of disbelief isn't too hard because there's something universal in what Allen explores. Like Santa Claus, we know it's not real but the idea is so appealing that we go along with the fantasy. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumMay 18, 2011
Allen has fun in his imaginary French capital, turning his star-studded cast loose to interpret their characters as they wish. Read full review
70
SlateDana StevensMay 21, 2011
A trifle in both senses of the word: a feather-light, disposable thing, and a rich dessert appealingly layered with cake, jam, and cream. Read full review
70
The New YorkerDavid DenbyMay 16, 2011
Midnight has one big problem: Allen hardly gives Gil a perceptive moment. He's awestruck and fumbling - he doesn't possess, to our eyes, the conviction of a writer. But who knows? He's young. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubKeith PhippsMay 19, 2011
An unassuming wisp of a movie, Midnight In Paris finds Woody Allen penning a love letter to the City Of Lights, albeit one whose sentiments could easily fit on a postcard. Read full review
63
Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanJun 11, 2011
A hymn to that beautiful city, is among his least consequential efforts. It's attractive and easy to slip into, but he didn't put enough thought into the design, and it soon falls apart. Read full review
More From This Movie

81 Critic Reviews

8.0 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 87 Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
2 84 Are You There God? It's Me,...
3 78 John Wick: Chapter 4
4 75 Polite Society
5 73 Air
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL