Review: Woody Allen's 'To Rome With Love'

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This film image released by Sony Pictures Classics shows, Alec Baldwin as John, left, and Jesse Eisenberg as Jack in a scene from "To Rome With Love." (AP Photo/Sony Pictures Classics, Philippe Antonello)

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Last year in "Midnight in Paris," Woody Allen spun a magical fable of love, being true to yourself and the overpowering allure of the city on the Seine. It was a shining return to form for the director, and it deservedly earned him his best reviews in years, Oscar nominations and success at the box office.

Now, Allen turns his attention from the charms of Gay Paree to Rome, a city that, in the minds of many, rivals Paris when it comes to love and romance. But if you're expecting another "Midnight in Paris" -- and you may well in the first moments of the new film -- you will be disappointed.

"To Rome With Love" is an affectionate portrait of the city, and parts of the film certainly are appealing. But it lacks the emotional kick and focus of "Midnight," and whole sequences simply fall flat.

What Allen has created is a modern-day version of the omnibus, multistoryline movies that were a major part of the Italian film scene in the 1960s and became popular in the U.S. under such titles as "Marriage Italian Style." There are four intertwined but never overlapping stories involving everyday Italians and American visitors, fashioned with a heavy dose of whimsy and a measure of fantasy.

The first story -- the one that works best -- initially suggests that you are about to go on another "Midnight in Paris"-style comedy-romance. An American tourist named Hayley (the engaging Alison Pill, who played Zelda Fitzgerald in "Midnight") is lost,

charmingly, while looking for the Trevi Fountain. She asks for directions from handsome Italian Michelangelo (Flavio Parenti), and it's amore.

The streets of Rome look beautiful, and you can just feel the romance blooming, even when Hayley's parents -- played by Judy Davis and Allen, in his first acting gig since 2006's "Scoop" -- show up, amusingly, to create complications.

The problem is that, just when the Hayley-Michelangelo story gains traction, we move on to the other three

tales. Two of those work sporadically, but the third hardly at all, despite the presence of some fine actors.

One story that works much of the time is a tale of comedic temptation involving young newlyweds who have just arrived in Rome for their honeymoon. Antonio (Alessandro Tiberi) and Milly (a luminous Alessandra Mastronardi) find themselves caught up in a farcical crisis of morals involving temptation from a high-end hooker (Pen?lope Cruz) and a film star (Antonio Albanese). It often is quite charming, particularly when Cruz is on the screen and deftly projecting earthy humor and sex appeal.

Roberto Benigni (remember him from 1997's Oscar-winning "Life Is Beautiful"?) pops up in the third segment as an ordinary, middle-class Roman who suddenly finds himself to be the most famous man in Italy, for no apparent reason. Frankly, I never thought I'd want to see the loopy Benigni in anything ever again, but here he gives a playful, commedia dell'arte performance as a bewildered everyman dealing with unwanted and unfounded fame. The bit goes on far too long, but that's not Benigni's fault.

Then there's the sequence with the biggest names. Alec Baldwin, Jesse Eisenberg, Ellen Page and Greta Gerwig -- all splendid actors -- get caught up in an ill-conceived and badly executed tale of conflicting desires and deep regrets. Baldwin plays a famous architect who meets a fledging architect (Eisenberg) who is, probably, his younger self. The young man has a girlfriend (Gerwig, in a thankless role), but temptation shows up in the form of a high-strung actress (Page).

The whole story is pretty much a mess; it suffers from a total lack of chemistry between Eisenberg and the miscast Page. Not even Baldwin's abilities with romantic comedy can save the day.

But that does leave the original story, and it turns out quite well, especially as it evolves into a consideration of second chances (for Allen's character, a former record company executive) and a finely surreal fable involving the talents of Michelangelo's father who, it turns out, has a marvelous, operatic singing voice -- under certain circumstances.

With renowned operatic tenor Fabio Armiliato playing the father, and doing that very well, the segment eclipses the rest of the film, suggesting what "To Rome With Love" might have been.

'TO ROME WITH LOVE'

* * 1/2

Rating: R (for sexual content)
Cast: Woody Allen, Alec Baldwin, Jesse Eisenberg and Pen?lope Cruz
Director: Woody Allen
Running time: 1 hour, 52 minutes. Much of the film is in Italian with subtitles.

Source: http://www.mercurynews.com/entertainment/ci_20941997/review-woody-allens-rome-love?source=rss

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