To Rome with Love<\/em> makes us tourists in shorts with a camera around our necks, stuttering high school Italian.<\/p>\nWith a large cast, the movie follows several stories. American ex-pat Hayley (Alison Pill) has fallen for Roman Michelangelo (Flavio Parenti). Her parents (Woody Allen and Judy Davis) dutifully visit, causing her retired music agent father to find a new project in Michelangelo\u2019s angel-voiced father. A newly married Italian couple (Alessandro Tibiri and Alessandra Mastronardi) chase their ambition to Rome, where she gets humorously lost and he accidentally teams up with a prostitute (Penelope Cruz).<\/p>\n
In more bizarre storylines, a working drudge (Roberto Benigni) suddenly finds himself the focus of inexplicable and unwarranted paparazzi adoration. Across town, a successful American named John (Alec Baldwin) returns to the street where he spent a magical summer, meeting his younger self (Jesse Eisenberg as Jack) , his girlfriend (Greta Gerwig) and the dangerous, damaged girl he regrets and yet doesn\u2019t (Ellen Page).<\/p>\n
Except maybe it\u2019s not John\u2019s younger self. Perhaps he\u2019s just another mixed up young adult. Or maybe he\u2019s Woody Allen, younger and slightly less neurotic.<\/p>\n
You really can\u2019t say.<\/p>\n
The whole thing is really quite odd. Sometimes John interacts normally with the young people as a new friend met on the streets of Rome. Sometimes he soliloquizes over their actions, muttering high-falutin\u2019 advice while they apparently don\u2019t see or hear him. And sometimes he hovers over Jack like those good and bad angels that sit on the shoulders of Sylvester the cat and tell him whether or not to eat Tweety Bird.<\/p>\n
Allen\u2019s direction is embarrassingly rough, especially at the beginning of the film. Characters deliver nothing lines with all the aplomb of a high school freshman in her first play. It\u2019s odd to see a favorite actor like Baldwin struggle over lines. In the initial interchange between John and Jack, one has to struggle to remember both actors have been nominated for Oscars.<\/p>\n
Like a relentless tourist, the movie clicks through its checkpoints. Here we have the profound but unexplored statement of theme, something about how the ancient ruins make you feel small and melancholy. We hear how young men (and by extrapolation, old adoptive fathers) will make self-destructive decisions they know are not in their best interest, helpless in the grip of desire. We learn that instructive sex with a prostitute and a movie star \u2013and really, what\u2019s the difference? \u2013 will enrich a young marriage. And we explore \u2013 well, it\u2019s not really clear \u00a0\u2013 something about celebrity culture and obsession with knowing everything about our idols.<\/p>\n
Everything \u00a0feels forced and rehashed, like Woody Allen dug into his old bag of tricks, dusted some Italian over them, and let em fly.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s too bad because the movie has some excellent moments. Most of them involve Woody Allen himself. From the first moment he comes on camera, as a neurotic flyer panicked by the slightest bump, he fills up the screen and entertains completely. Even as a scrawny, thin-haired, 76 year old, he\u2019s still got it. Taken alone, his caper to coerce Michelangelo\u2019s father into the spotlight is as funny as anything he\u2019s ever done.<\/p>\n
Despite its occasional charm, the movie wastes its greatest character \u2013 Roma herself. Besides a few obligatory shots of the Spanish Steps or the Trevi Fountain, the movie could have happened anywhere. All that ancient and instructive humanity is lost to us.<\/p>\n
Just as it is to the tour bus that passes through for an afternoon on the way to check the next city off the list.<\/p>\n
To Rome with Love is rated R for sexual situations and language. The situations are verbally described, not shown, but the description is quite graphic. Not an appropriate movie for teens or children.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"‘Midnight in Paris’ made the viewer a Parisian for a few hours. ‘To Rome with Love’ makes us tourists in shorts with a camera around our necks, stuttering high school Italian.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":74,"featured_media":2295,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[161,204,168],"tags":[180,434,181],"class_list":["post-2293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-in-theaters","category-slider","tag-midnight-in-paris","tag-to-rome-with-love","tag-woody-allen"],"yoast_head":"\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/62\/2012\/06\/To-Rome-With-Love-4.jpg\" "\\"To")
<\/a>There once was a director who had little curl, all over his head.<\/em><\/p>\n