Woody Allen’s new film, “Midnight in Paris,” seeks to understand romance vs. reality, pitting fleeting relationships in golden era dreams against the reluctantly accepted crush of convenience and safety in modern times.

Introduced to mismatched couples operating in different dimensions, the audience quickly sees that the antagonists, the harsh realists played by Michael Sheen and Rachel McAdams, are perfect for each other, if only not for ill-fitting entanglements.