"You're in love with a fantasy."

There are some movies you watch time and time again. Why? Because eventually, it feels like coming home. Woody Allen's "Midnight in Paris" is the first movie, for me, in a long time that immediately felt homey — and it had only been five minutes. I can only imagine what "watch, rewatch, repeat" will accomplish.

In the movie, Owen Wilson is in love with a fantasy — the nostalgia of another time and place. The past is an escape — much like how this movie was an escape for my mom, grandma, aunt, and I. The outing was an impromptu idea that trumped all thoughts of Monday night Zumba and loads of laundry. We ladies met at La Reve, a charming French cafe in downtown Wauwatosa (I know, who'd have thought?). We dined on crepes, croque madame, brie crostini with honey and cracked pepper, and house-brewed coffee. Heaven. And the movie itself was the icing on our escapist cake.

Allow me to relay one quote from Michael Sheen's Paul that really captured my attention — probably because it rings so true for my own existence. It goes like this:

"Nostalgia is denial — denial of the painful present... The name for this denial is golden age thinking — the erroneous notion that a different time period is better than the one ones living in — its a flaw in the romantic imagination of those people who find it difficult to cope with the present."

Made me want to cry. And made me want to rejoice that, if there exists such a thing as "golden age thinking," that means there also exists other people suffering from said thinking — just like me. Now I can't with good conscience delve into the ins and outs of "Midnight in Paris" — let me just say, it was surprising. Wonderfully surprising. And I wouldn't want to spoil it for any other dreamer out there. Just take my word for it, fellow Franco-files: this film is like coming home and makes you pause to muse, as Marion Cotillard's Adriana says, "That Paris exists and anyone could choose to live anywhere else in the world will always be a mystery to me."