To Rome with Love reviews

In his fourth ode to great European cities, Woody Allen sets four disparate stories with no connection to each other. To Rome with Love is a breezy... read more

In his fourth ode to great European cities, Woody Allen sets four disparate stories with no connection to each other. To Rome with Love is a breezy watch that is difficult not to like, yet equally difficult to gush over nonstop.

There is a newlywed couple gets separated in Rome and end up cheating on each other. A retired opera director, played by Woody himself, discovers a singer in his daughters father in law and tries to give him a career in showbiz. A young architect (Jesse Eisenberg) falls for his girlfriends neurotic friend while being cautioned by his own future self (Alec Baldwin) only to end up heartbroken. And finally, a common middle class man (Roberto Benigni) discovers the pitfalls of sudden unexplained fame and its transitory nature.

As these stories run along in the beautiful city of Rome a common thread runs through each of them- every character is put in a situation outside his or her comfort zone. So the newlywed couple, comfortable in their small town existence find adultery in big city Rome enticing, the architect, secure in his relationship gives in to the temptation of a sexy seductress Ellen Page.

The simple average everyday man Roberto is put in the spotlight with every single detail of his mundane life making headlines nonstop and just as he begins to get used to this new found fame everything is snatched away. The Retired opera director is out of his comfortable working status and is looking for a chance to get out of retirement, which he equates to death. While his muse, the undertaker shower singer is excited by the prospect of fame only to be content with his normal life later.

The tenor of the film is decidedly breezy and romantic. Rome is shown in all its ruinous splendor with picture postcard imagery as the characters negotiate life with a subtle sense of irony and wit. The camera makes sweet love to Romes streets and alleys giving one a tourist brochure kind of a feel. It is difficult not to give into the film and get along with the people on screen. This however is where the trouble begins too.

For the film doesnt have much to engage once the basic premise of each story is established. Yes, they are simple people in funny situations, yet there is no real insight into life, either theirs or in general. The film doesnt go beyond picture perfect frames and beautiful people. One wished the director chose to slice through the lives and stories with a more analytical bent of mind.

To Rome with Love is not Allens best work, it is definitely not as involving and maverick as last years Midnight in Paris. Nonetheless it is a delightful watch that would leave you dreaming about a trip to Rome if nothing else.

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Throw a coin into the Trevi fountain and you will come back to Rome I was told on my first visit to Roma aka Rome. I so badly wanted to come back a... read more

Throw a coin into the Trevi fountain and you will come back to Rome I was told on my first visit to Roma aka Rome. I so badly wanted to come back and see this city with my wife that I wished hard and threw the coin. After a few months something magical happened. I won a free trip for two to Italy which included Rome. In my limited travel experience this is the only international city I have visited twice so yes, I am biased to Rome and I am biased to Italy.

Woody Allens To Rome with love is filled with some magical stories that are quirky, strange and some hard to believe. It is made up of four short stories strung together. One starring Jesse Eisenberg and Ellen Page falling for each other while touring Rome. One has Roberto Benigni as a common man who one day finds himself becoming famous but he doesnt know why. Third is about a newlywed couple Antonio (Alessandro Tiberi) and Mily (Alessandra Mastronardi) who land up in Rome and how a loss of phone and a knock on the door sets them off on a mini adventure ride. The fourth one stars Woody Allen who discovers a singer who can sing opera only when he is in the bathroom.

Fame/Celebrity is a theme that runs through all the stories whereas the title suggested that it would be mostly romantic stories. Out of all the stories my favorite was the one featuring Alessandra Mastronardi who is also the most beautiful face in the film. Most of the stories are predictable and the one featuring Roberto Benigni gets repetitive but what saves the film is the beautiful cinematography by Darius Khondji, the cast and the humor. At times I found myself looking at the names of the cafes and locations instead of focusing on the film. The humor is insanely funny & it will make you forget the weak writing. Woody Allen has got the perfect ensemble cast that fits in right against the backdrop of the city.

Word of mouth To Rome with love will make you gorge on some Italian food after it is over.

Rating 3.5 (Good)

Ticket Meter worth 200 bucks

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I love Woody Allen movies for their narcissistic neurotic characters and of course Woodys wonderful quirky sense of humour. To Rome with Love has b... read more

I love Woody Allen movies for their narcissistic neurotic characters and of course Woodys wonderful quirky sense of humour. To Rome with Love has both in diluted form which makes it somewhat a tepid affair.

The story set in Rome traces the lives of different couples not interrelated to each other. The scene shifts randomly between the couples with Rome as the constant backdrop. The story is actually four stories and so I wont get into it here, except that it follows his regular themes of love, lust and relationships.

Only problem is that its all very watered down as if he is bored of going down the same road yet again. Woodys character of a retired music industry guy is neurotic in a hackneyed kind of way. Alec Baldwin plays the young architects inner being or ego or something that keeps talking to him and that is very irritating though he does have some very good lines. Penelope Cruz plays a hooker with relish.

Overall, its an ok film. The movie has some bright moments (the opera singer track being the highlight) and a few great dialogues and funny scenes. Not the best of Woody though. Recommended only for hard core fans

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I'm yet to see a film made by Woody Allen, which I can call bad. Not a single one out of his 42 feature films is unwatchable. Needless to say, I'm ... read more

I'm yet to see a film made by Woody Allen, which I can call bad. Not a single one out of his 42 feature films is unwatchable. Needless to say, I'm a huge fan. Yes, this is minor Woody. Nowhere near his best. He has made a few movies that don't please everyone. He's been fondled with criticism and accused of returning to form multiple times over the course of his 46 year-old directing career. This film definitely has a few minuses: the narration device used at the beginning and ending is rather tame and Greta Gerwig is criminally wasted. It is a combination of Anything Else (2003) and Celebrity (1998). Right. That's as far as my objectivity takes me, the rest of this review is going to be a Woody-vomit wherein I don't drink the water.

To Rome with Love tells 4 stories:-

Story 1: Jesse Eisenberg plays Jack, a young architect studying in Rome; he lives with his girlfriend Sally (Greta Gerwig). In comes Sally's friend, the forbidden fruit Monica (Ellen Page). Alec Baldwin plays John, the mentor who pops up whenever there is a neurotic crisis at hand. This makes up for some cheekily whimsical fluff that improves upon the misgivings of Anything Else. John is essentially the Woody Allen character from that film. My guess is he will come up with another old-man-guiding-young-man movie. Just like his several attempts at combining surreal fantasies with sharp wit, which finally hit the universal sweet spot with Midnight in Paris (2011). (Purple Rose of Cairo remains my favourite though)

Story 2: Jerry (Woody Allen) and his wife (Judy Davis) come to Rome to meet their daughter (Alison Pill). She finds her fantasy European romance and is getting married. Instead of being charmed by her fiance, Michelangelo (Flavio Parenti), Jerry finds a new voice in Michelangelo's father. He's a mortician, a simpleton who sings beautifully in the shower. Jerry wishes to be his manager and grant him a career out of his bathroom singing; Michelangelo feels his father will make a fool of himself. There are typical Woody quips like "He sings for pleasure, not money." "But there IS pleasure in money". (Hilare)

Story 3: Newlyweds- Antonio and Milly (Alessandro Tiberian and Allesandra Mastronardi) are meeting Antonios family and Milly is expected to be his trophy wife. Antonio is a classic case of the Madonna and the whore complex. His sexual repression leads him to the whore played by the molto bella Penelope Cruz. Milly has her fantasy realized when a famous actor falls for her.

Story 4: Roberto Bengini plays a middle class man who is so painfully ordinary that he may have never been noticed by anyone. Soon, his dormant wish is realized as he becomes famous. What he thinks about the weather and what he had for breakfast become national news. This story had the most potential but is the only one that becomes tedious and subsequently runs out of steam.

To Rome with Love is essentially about green grass. You will always want "that thing", the unattainable. All of these characters want more but don't really need it. Not everyone gets to sing Pagliacci or play Miss Julie on stage or sleep with an actor.

Woody Allen rehashes his subjects and presents them with new characters almost every year. This hit and trial method has worked mostly. The hits are: Annie Hall (1977), Manhattan (1979), The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985), Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989), Husbands and Wives (1992), Bullets Over Broadway (1994), Match Point (2005) and Midnight in Paris (2011). There are several others I absolutely adore but these films typify his style and combine it with the best of moviemaking. Every film of his doesn't have to have a throne in cinematic history. That's 42 spots taken solely by him. Sounds pretty impossible to me. Thing is with Woody, it's never a miss. It's only "not a hit". His misses are also better than most films made in any given year. I have nothing to whine about especially when a movie loves being silly, almost swims in it and still ends up being more proficient than most films that claim to be comedies these days.

I have anointed Woody Allen as a certain best friend of mine. The best friend I never had (Yes, I know thats creepy but f*** you). Watching a movie of his is like being a part of an aesthetically rich, perceptive, thoughtful and personally rewarding 90-minute conversation with your best mate. For some weird reason, every new movie of his happens to be about the exact same thing I'm going through and I get great advice, like a good friend would offer. When you meet your friends, sometimes it isn't as fun as it could have been but it is just right. Nothing eventful happens that you would mark in the calendar of your life but it is just right to remind you why they are your friends in the first place. To Rome with Love is exactly that.

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After reveling in the exotica of European capitals such as London for Match Point, Barcelona with Vicky and Cristina and his irresistibly heartfelt... read more

After reveling in the exotica of European capitals such as London for Match Point, Barcelona with Vicky and Cristina and his irresistibly heartfelt letter to Paris, Woody Allen finally faces the looming Euro crisis in the Eternal City of Rome.

So there is the gorgeous muse alright. And just like Paris was seductively wrapped with golden hues covering the delicate montages, Rome gets similarly pampered too. But the problem lies in the city being reduced to a dreamlike backdrop failing to become a character in itself.

The film consists of four seemingly disconnected stories that are united by a largely misogynistic notion of adultery. Every character steps out of his ostensibly comfortable life for a little adventure on the outside and is left eventually disappointed after a momentary escape from the monotonous reality.

Alec Baldwin is a successful architect visiting Rome where he once lived. Jesses Eisenberg is an aspiring architect living in the city with his girlfriend (Greta Grewick) and models himself on Alec (But you sold out to the shopping malls). When Ellen Pages seductress Monica visits Greta Grewick, it immediately leads her to insecure ideas about her boyfriend inescapably falling for the charming Monica. (As much as I adore Page, she is a serious misfit here)

Baldwin here is seen out of his will where he consistently shares unsolicited advice. Its Woodys most favorite tool of magical realism where a character talks to the fourth wall or has unexplainable presence (Annie Hall, Purple Rose of Cairo, Whatever Works) sometimes only Eisenberg can see his reasoning, but Page occasionally jumps into the conversation to defend her insistent character assassination.

In other pictures, a clerk rises to unexpected fame where the local paparazzi hound him as if hes the living avatar of Jesus Christ. Allen tries to pass a commentary on the celebrity culture a creation of the out-of-ideas media and the trappings the trajectory commonly follows.

Roberto Benigini plays the common man of the middle class whose life sees an upward swing but it only leads to his becoming more annoyed and agitated. But similar is the case when the momentary fame eludes him leading to delusionary crisis. The point here is that life is similar on both ends of the spectrum, but, like the guy who played chauffeur to Benigini during his starry days reminds us, Being a celebrity is still a better life.

Then there is Woody Allen himself playing himself the neurotic father of Hayley who has fallen in love with a Roman lawyer whose father happens to be an undertaker who sings beautiful opera but only in the shower (The Flinstones ?)

Which brings us to the hottest aspect of all of Europe Penelope Cruz, playing a sultry prostitute who, in a case of mistaken identity, ends up in the hotel room of an innocent small-town Italian about to inherit a dynastical big job. As is the case with most of his movies, each character begins to mouth observations through overly worded dialogues that sound as if Woody is saying them. His one-liners seem exhaustively used and the lack of novelty doesnt inspire many chuckles but a few which are far in-between. Out of all the four stories, the common theme that binds them is the characters attempting to do something that they are pretty unsure of. But they still go ahead with it, eventually landing at square one. Much like the escapades of Vicky and Crisitna with Juan Antonio.

The funniest lines come from Woody himself who is predictably neurotic and so imagine him facing an undertaker. What is slightly different here with Woodys character is that the character has retired but is equating retirement with death. So when he insists his son-in-laws father to give opera a shot (they bring a make-shift shower on to the stage), he is basically tying to reignite his own passion as the manager for a record-label company, thus escaping the blandness of retirement.

All these stories unfold without a strong narrative connect and at times, the film feels longer despite its running time of 112 minutes. Rome remains a mere touristy surrounding without actually having an influential part. To make the viewers realize we are still in Rome and to reinforce its greatness, characters walk by the postcard-perfect Piazzas and stare dreamily at the coliseum saying lines like, This city is unbelievable.

So in the context of picture-tourism, Midnight in Paris remains Woody Allens most honest and sincere film. It is not only because it is literally a fairy tale but is laced with profound and intellectual wit and speaks of characters that inhabited the City of Lights not for reasons touristy but much more philosophical and solicitous.

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Hollywood heretic Woody Allen makes a sardonic poke calling his films as 'foreign films' - in his latest offering To Rome with Love. This 'city fil... read more

Hollywood heretic Woody Allen makes a sardonic poke calling his films as 'foreign films' - in his latest offering To Rome with Love. This 'city film' in the series comes as no surprise where Allen plays the role of Jerry, a retired opera director. What humiliates him is the mid-air turbulence, fear of death that comes in the form of retirement, and what lurches him is his future son-in-law Michelangelo whose mind is infested with communistic ideology. Allen should be cognizant of the fact that we have seen such bored-with-life, distraught self-portrayal in his earlier films - something nurtured to perfection in his film Hollywood Ending. Judy Davis plays Allen's wife, Jerry, a psychiatrist, who deals with her husband's neurotic condition with an inscrutable pessimism. Had she handed over her husband's case to Sigmund Freud, he would term him not as a man with ego or superego, but a man with multiple identities.

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Hope you have noticed the depth in my writing; the same is the case with Woody Allen's characters in To Rome with Love.They become invariably enigmatic at times leaving no scope to delve into them. If you are a fan of Allen and his works, you involuntarily compare this film with his previous works that showcase cities with an impeccable eye for detail. Be it the discerning Vicky Cristina Barcelona or the entrancing Midnight in Paris. But Allen's tribute to Rome lacks fizz, even half-cooked, because he has no contemplation on the city itself - Mr. Allen, couple of Italian middle-class couples don't make 'the colossal' Rome. For that matter they can be pegged in any backdrop - New York, London or New Delhi.

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Despite all these you can see the classy touch of Woody Allen. This man with the multiple hues of a writer, director, actor and playwright has been making films for four decades, and all these movies have his consummate hallmark. It seems he finally found his muse in 'city film'genre. Out of his films, many are reveries on urban phoniness and the ever-lasting combat between novelty and non-conformism, creativity and commercialism, dampened with astuteness that acerbically caricatures the real/imaginary worlds he belongs to. A cinephile would be elated that Woody Allen is still honing every possible film-making element of his and delivering surprise after surprise.
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Let's fling back to the film. With an array of characters living in (or migrated to) the city of Rome, the film is a mosaic made out of seemingly discordant tiles, all of which come together to form a thing of beauty that remains joyful for some time (unlike John Keats' 'joy forever'). Four stories run in parallel tracks but are not necessarily interwoven. A successful American architect, another fledgling yet idealistic architect, a live-in girlfriend, her female friend played by Ellen Page (who gets some meaty dialogues to play around with). Allen stupendously etched Page's character as an intelligentsia-meets-emotionally spurious or orgasmically spurious one (tongue-in-cheek). This character with its distilled and simplified presence shines as other Allen's uncanny interpretations of nouveau riche and neo-artsy world.

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Enough of revelations and no more probing into characters - Let's keep some surprises as surprises and allow them unleash on screen!! The bone of contention in the film is the beautiful city of Rome whose presence was hardly felt. When Paris and Barcelona could get a poetic testimony from Allen in his previous films, what's the problem with Rome? Here the pristine city is lost in its global camouflage. May be Allen used someone else's eyes to detail the city!! The rib-tickling elements are sharp and startling, and they come with a dose of fancy and slapstick. Ultimately, the movie boils down to an average Rom-com with Allenish touch of genius.

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Bottom-line: In To Rome with Love, as Woody Allen is committed to the idea of paradigms he ridicules and rejoices at the same time, the movie watching experience becomes akin to having a fine wine with a wrong choice of cheese. At times your intellect takes the longest leap and at times you feel there's nothing to incite the remotest corner of your cerebral garage. Your craving for an exotic dish gets accentuated and assuaged owing to lackadaisical unfolding of cinematic glory on celluloid. In a nutshell, you just like everyone and everything about the film, but CONDITIONS APPLY!!

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nice movie

3.5/5

TO ROME WITH LOVE REVIEW In 2011, Woody Allen took a magical trip to France in his Oscar-winning film, Midnight in Paris... read more

TO ROME WITH LOVE REVIEW

In 2011, Woody Allen took a magical trip to France in his Oscar-winning film, Midnight in Paris. Now, Allens European adventure continues with a jaunt to Italy, for a fleeting and forgettable comedy about life and love in the Eternal City.

To Rome with Love follows an ensemble cast of characters as they fall in and out of love in Rome. Jack (Jesse Eisenberg) begins to question his relationship with Sally (Greta Gerwig) after her alluring best friend, Monica (Ellen Page), comes for a visit. Italian newlyweds Antonio (Alessandro Tiberi) and Milly (Alessandra Mastronardi) end up separated and seduced by fascinating strangers. Hayley (Allison Pill) and Michelangelo (Flavio Parenti) find their relationship in question when Hayleys dad, Jerry (Allen), tries to turn Michelangelos father (Fabio Armiliato) into an opera star. And regular Roman Leopoldo (Roberto Bengini) suddenly becomes a celebrityfor no real reason that he can tell.



Considering the films title, you might expect the four random and completely unconnected storylines in To Rome with Love to exude the romance and passion for which Italy and its residents are so well-known. Instead, theyre simple, silly clichsalmost all of which involve some kind of awkward infidelity. And while theyre mildly entertaining, none of them really stand out as particularly memorableor especially clever. For the most part, theyre merely stories that youve heard before, acted out by characters youve met before.

Meanwhile, with so many characters coming and going throughout the film, its a challenge to keep track of them allor to care about any of them. Of course, it doesnt really help that some were poorly castlike Page, who seems completely out of her element playing the cool and mysterious sexpot (and who has absolutely no chemistry with costar Eisenberg). Even the vibrant city of Romewhich deserves to be a character in its own rightseems to get lost in the shuffle of characters and storylines, becoming just a flat, postcard-like backdrop for encounters that could have happened anywhere else in the world.

Really, Allen himself is the highlight of the film. Though his shtick is always the same, it never seems to get oldand, well, it doesnt hurt that he gives himself some of the funniest lines in the film. Its just a shame that his storyline is so completely ludicrous.

Movie lovers who are still basking in the dreamy, romantic glow of Midnight in Paris, then, will get a rude awakening from To Rome with Love. To be fair, its not a terrible movie. It does, after all, have its share of amusing moments, thanks to its iconic filmmaker. But this Roman holiday is nothing to write home about.
Verdict-2.5/5 view less