100 Movie Challenge 2014 - # 4: To Rome with Love

Director: Woody Allen
Genre: Comedy/ Romance
Runtime: 89 minutes
Year: 2012
Starring: Woody Allen, Jesse Eisenberg, Ellen Page, Alec Baldwin, Penélope Cruz, Roberto Benigni, Greta Gerwich, Alison Pil, Judy Davis, Alessandro Tiberi, Alessandra Mastronardi, Flavio Parenti

Description: The intertwining stories of a worker who wakes up to find himself a celebrity (Roberto Benigni), an architect (Alec Baldwin) who takes a trip back to the street he lived on as a student, a young couple (Alessandro Tiberi, Alessandra Mastronardi ) on their honeymoon, and a frustrated opera director (Woody Allen) who has a talent for discovering talented singers.

Review: For director Woody Allen it has become the recipe: pick a famous city, choose a couple of interesting characters, add some storylines to it and finish it off with some witty comedy. Where he’s taken on Barcelona (“Vicky Cristina Barcelon”), London (“You Will Mee a Tall Dark Stranger”) and Paris (“Midnight in Paris”), he chose Rome for his décor this time.
I always like movies with multiple storylines, but it’s a bit too much here, even for Woody Allen. It’s very hard to make four completely different stories, which absolutely no relation, interesting. Which make some of the storylines feel a bit incomplete. For instance the story op Leopoldo, an average citizen who becomes a celebrity all of a sudden. It’s a good concept but doesn’t have the humor it should have. None of these stories are above average and the characters are all superficial and easily replaceable.
“To Rome with Love” does have some interesting moments, like the story of Jerry who discover that Giancarlo is a fantastic opera singer. But it also appears that he can only sing this well in the shower. This storyline is funny at times. The music that was used for the film is very characteristic and makes you think you’re in Rome. But the city of Rome isn’t used the way Allen did with Paris in one of my favorites “Midnight in Paris”, which was a hit. Is “To Rome with Love” a miss? Not completely, but it’s definitely not one of his best movies.

Rating: 2,5/ 5