Most reviews of Woody Allen’s latest film, To Rome with Love (2012), at some point feel the need to say the latest is not as good as Allen’s success from last year, Midnight in Paris. While it is true that the new film lacks the storyline of its predecessor, To Rome with Love is a light-hearted romp set amidst the beauty of Rome that has many funny moments and is a good summer movie.
In Woody Allen: A Documentary (2011), Allen shows a pile of scrap paper he carries around where he writes notes for ideas to movies. He explains that when it is time to write a new film, he throws the notes down and looks through them. I can imagine him doing that before he made To Rome with Love, finding four stories he liked but that on their own could not sustain a full-length film. Then, I imagine, he hit upon the idea to throw the four tales together into one movie and create To Rome with Love. And Allen being the talented director and writer that he is, he creates a fun and entertaining movie.
To Rome with Love features four stories with separate characters connected only in that they all are in Rome. One story follows an average worker played by Roberto Benigni who suddenly finds himself famous for no reason. In another story, a character played by Allen hears the father of his daughter’s boyfriend singing in the shower and decides to make him famous. In a third tale, a newly married Italian couple become separated in the big city and the husband ends up having to pretend that a prostitute (Penélope Cruz) is his wife. In the fourth story, a character played by Alec Baldwin goes looking for his past and ends up in a story where a young man (Jesse Eisenberg) considers cheating on his girlfriend (Greta Gerwig) with her friend (Ellen Page).
I will not ruin any of the stories, but different people will enjoy different stories more than the others. While I found them all interesting, I could not help thinking that the Baldwin-Eisenberg-Gerwig-Page tale is the one story that might have had a chance to be developed into the centerpiece of film on its own.
Conclusion? If you are looking for a summer romantic comedy with some laughs and wit, check out Woody Allen’s To Rome with Love. As all the critics will remind you, do not expect Midnight in Paris. But do not let that comparison stop you from seeing an entertaining funny film.
Other Reviews Because Why Should You Trust Me?: Rotten Tomatoes reflects shattered Midnight in Paris expectations from many critics and viewers, showing a 45% Critics Rating and a 50% Audience Rating. Mike Scott at the New Orleans Times-Picayune agrees with the low rating and calls the film, “shrug-worthy.” Gary Wolcutt at the Tri-City Herald, though, says the movie works “brilliantly” and gives it 4 1/2 stars. Finally, although the full review is not online for non-subscribers, David Denby of The New Yorker disagrees with many other critics and praises To Rome with Love as “a stronger film” than Midnight in Paris.
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