‘Midnight’ light, enjoyable

Here’s a sentence I never thought I’d write again: Woody Allen has made a wonderful new picture, “Midnight in Paris,” and it’s his best, most enjoyable work in years.

I’ve been a tough sell on the past dozen or so Allen films, very much including the well-acted but finally wearying “Vicky Cristina Barcelona.” It seemed that everything he touched in recent years was tainted by misanthropy and sourness. Until now.

With “Midnight in Paris,” Allen has lightened up, allowed himself a treat and in the process created a gift for us and him. Bolstered by appealing performers such as Owen Wilson, Marion Cotillard and Rachel McAdams, it is his warmest, mellowest and funniest venture in far too long.

This is also a film with an unanticipated twist, so the less you know about it the better.

Allen says he’s been enamored of Paris since he wrote and acted in “What’s New Pussycat?” in 1965. You can sense his continued passion for the city throughout the film, feel the extra pep in his step and pleasure in his heart.

“Midnight” opens with an extended montage of Paris’ tourist landmarks, one that lasts longer than necessary to simply establish location. Allen is saying, pay attention – this is a special place, a place where magic can happen.

That’s certainly the attitude of Gil (Wilson), a successful Hollywood screenwriter who is an effusive enthusiast for the City of Light in general, and the 1920s golden age of Fitzgerald-Hemingway Paris in particular. So much so that he dreams of turning his back on all that studio money and writing novels on the Left Bank.

Gil’s fiancee, Inez (McAdams), doesn’t like the sound of that. She and Gil are in Paris accompanying her wealthy parents on a business trip and she doesn’t even want to think about anything that would diminish his income.

His raptures are put on hold when he and Inez bump into her friend Paul (Michael Sheen) and his wife. A professor whom Inez once had a crush on, Paul is in Paris to lecture at the Sorbonne.

It’s soon clear he’s an insufferable bore, so pedantic he gets into an argument with a guide at the Rodin Museum (a brief cameo for French first lady Carla Bruni).

As much to escape Paul as anything else, Gil takes a late-night walk and just as the clock strikes midnight on the Rue Montagne St. Genevieve, something happens that throws his life into disarray.

Perhaps most unsettling, but in a good way, is Gil’s meeting with the beautiful and spirited Adriana (Cotillard), an aspiring fashion designer who has a history of inspiring artists.

Also great fun in smaller roles are Kathy Bates and Adrien Brody, as well as French stars Lea Seydoux and Gad Elmaleh.

More than anything, “Midnight” has Paris. For one film, at least, that extraordinary city has changed Allen’s mood and altered his outlook on cinema and life. It may do the same for you.