To Rome With Love

TO ROME WITH LOVE

Woody Allen makes a hilarious return to acting...and Europe

Box office mojo

2012, Comedy, Rated PG-13

Distributed by Sony Pictures Classics

          I'm terribly sorry but once again we have a biased review. There are two kinds of moviegoers in this world: those who love Woody Allen, and those who don't. I have seen all but one of his features (there are now 43!) and I can say I am a huge fan. He's the hardest working director in the movie business. He writes and directs at least one film every other year since he began back in the early 60s. He wasn't at the Oscars to accept his award for Best Original Screenplay for Midnight In Paris because he was busy filming his next little gem, To Rome With Love. Sometimes a Woody film comes along that isn't very good, lacking in some way or another (like Melinda and Melinda, Anything Else, Another Woman). But on the other hand, he can create a masterpiece (Annie Hall, Zelig, A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy). Peppered throughout his career are films like To Rome With Love: a funny, heartfelt, intelligent, won't-win-any-awards-but-a-damn-good-time-at-the-cinema type of picture.

          To Rome With Love combines all that has been good about Allen's films and makes a sort of short-story collection out of them. Many films take different story lines and make them come together in the end, but in To Rome With Love, the different tales are connected by one fact: they all take place in Rome. This undeniably makes the film feel a bit disjointed, the audience unable to truly connect with any characters because of every one's brief onscreen time. There are no real main characters in this film. The main characters of each story become minor characters in the scope of the entire film. This can be pardoned though, because each story is interesting a unique enough to warrant the existence of the film.

          What's great about To Rome With Love is how each story is totally different from one another. Some are traditional Woody: love and adultery. Others utilize fantasy elements to intensify emotion. Alec Baldwin's character, for example, doesn't really exist in the material world. If I'm not mistaken, he is the older version of Jesse Eisenberg's character, showing up only to give him advice in love and life. Sometimes it is unclear as to whether other characters can in fact see or hear him. Elements like that have come up in Woody films like Midnight In Paris, Alice, and The Curse of the Jade Scorpion. Then there is the classic adultery tale, and of course, the hypochondriac Allen himself.

          The highlight of the film is Allen's return to acting in his own picture. He hasn't done so since the very lackluster Scoop. It was incredibly refreshing to see him complaining and nagging at his onscreen wife, the splendid Judy Davis, a veteran of Woody's films. His story involves Allen as a retired classical music record producer. He discovers a superb opera singer who he wants to manage. Unfortunately, though, he can only sing well in the shower. Allen goes so far as to produce operas in which the singer literally sings on stage in a shower. It's ridiculous, but hilariously and charmingly so.

          To Rome With Love is a very light film. It doesn't have any sweeping statements to make about love, but rather many little comments about life, particularly life in Rome or any beautiful and desirable city. We get to see some of Allen's troupe return to relay his impeccably written dialogue, and some new blood (Ellen Paige, Alec Baldwin, Jesse Eisenberg, Greta Gerwig). Everyone turns in great performances, and the stories are interesting, funny, or heartfelt enough to please any moviegoer. If you know that you don't like Woody Allen's films then you may want to skip it. It won't win awards like the somewhat overrated Midnight In Paris, but it is worth a watch for sure. Then again, it is minor Woody, so if you haven't seen Sleeper, Match Point, Bullets Over Broadway, Radio Days, or Husbands and Wives, skip Rome and seek out those instead. Either way, To Rome With Love is a total success.

Side note: Here's my Woody Allen's Top Ten (in no particular order):

 Husbands and Wives

 A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy

 Match Point

 Sleeper

 Zelig

 Radio Days

 Deconstructing Harry

 Take the Money and Run

 Sweet and Lowdown

 Bullets Over Broadway