I enjoyed Midnight in Paris more than I thought. It suffers from all of Woody Allen’s problems as a filmmaker. The dialog is stilted (painfully in some places) and rather unbelievable, particularly any time a character has to say anything on the topic of love and relationships. McAdam’s character is so over-the-top awful to Owen Wilson that I can’t believe he would not have flushed her down the toilet, even given his neutered persona (couldn’t Woody make her just a little believable?) The inevitable insufferable intellectual character, played enthusiastically by Michael Sheen, is even more transparently fabricated than it usually is in Allen’s films. In general, the characters and themes are the exact same endless rehash of his life-long obsessions: can you love two women at once?, the screen writer that longs to be a great novelist, contrasting insufferable intellectuals with the “soulful,” misunderstood Woody Allen character, pining for Cole Porter’s sappy music, beautiful but lost and troubled woman being guided by great, soulful men. It’s almost enough to make you want to vomit, frankly.

So why did I enjoy it at all? Three reasons. First, Owen Wilson (an actor I really don’t care for) actually turns in a rather charming “performance” – he’s really not acting very much, he’s just doing his weird-voiced, hippy-dippy thing. But in this movie, his hippy-dippy schtick really takes the edge off Allen’s terrible dialog, making it almost work, much the way the Spanish actors in Vicky Christina Barcelona were able to transform his crap dialog into something really memorable. Secondly, Allen, to his credit, succeeded in getting fairly understated performances out of all the actors playing the artists of the 1920’s and the 1890’s, which makes those sequence work pretty well. Third, Paris is a fun city to look at.

Oh yes, and one other thing. Alison Pill is outstanding in the supporting role of Zelda Fitzgerald. She lights up the screen in her brief appearances. Talk about an under-appreciated and under-utilized actress. Can’t someone write this gal a fabulous lead role for her to shine in? Please?!

Here’s the question: does Midnight in Paris deserve the Academy Award nomination it’s sure to get? Well, probably, but only because movies are so incredibly bad this year, and now of course they insist on nominating 10 of them! If pressed, I would have to admit that Midnight in Paris probably is one of the 10 best mainstream movies I saw this year, but that’s not saying very much.

I’d Netflix it if you are in the mood for a diverting little urban fairytale. It goes down reasonably well, despite its flaws, and you don’t burp it too much afterwards.