To Rome with Love

Since 1969 Woody Allen has made close to a movie a year. I've seen almost all of his films and can say with some certainty that I've enjoyed each one! A great many are classics and the rest I would happily recommend - especially to any film fan or lover of the written word.
Seeing a new Woody Allen film is not unlike seeing a new Bond. There is a familiarity to each one - from the typeface used for each credit sequence (Windsor Elongated/Light Condensed) to the similarly scored soundtracks (Jazz or Classical inspired). Like any good series of films, you know there'll be similarities, but you keep watching for the surprises!
Midnight in Paris (5/5) was a favourite of mine last year - and Allens new film continues with a European flavour, evident in much of his recent output.

To Rome with Love tells a multitude of stories, as foreigners and residents alike live out there day-to-day in the Italian capital.
We have two Italian newly-weds from the country, in town to meet the grooms parents. A love-sick American student, who's invited her own parents over to meet the man she's going to marry. Another American traveller revisits his old stamping ground. While a native every-man is suddenly and without reason, blessed with celebrity!
Woody Allen has told many a different tale throughout his career and rather than have the stories in this film cross-pollinate, they act instead as snapshots in to the lives of these alluring characters. Each adventure is different, yet the potential is there for each protagonist to experience the same fate.

Of the four stories, the only one that didn't really work for me was that of the American traveller (Alec Baldwin) returning to his old stamping ground. One assumes he's living vicariously through his younger self (Jesse Eisenberg), but this isn't clear. The three remaining stories are more engaging - providing many an amusing scenario. There is certainly no shortage of laughs in this film!
To Rome with Love has a great cast, with Allen himself on fine form and Roberto Benigni the stand out! Having worked with Allen before, Judy Davis and Penelope Cruz make things look effortless. Davis is great as Allens long suffering wife, while Cruz smoulders as a hooker with a heart!

The stories here are quite charming, but they do seem somewhat fleeting. The only real connection to each tale is that of the human condition - a main staple of Allens movies. This is a film for anyone who's ever thought about what all those thousands of people do each day - the ones you see on your way to and from work, or even abroad or on the TV. Despite one's curiosity there's a disconnect, because you don't know them intimately.
When it comes to film, it's hard to invest in a large ensemble - even harder when said cast is split between four stories. I think I would've preferred it if there was some connection between the stories in, To Rome with Love. Even if the exchanges were small, it would have created a larger world.

In the end this is a story about a city and the people that inhabit it - be they native or foreign, they're all just visiting!

3/5


Poster image courtesy: http://www.heyuguys.co.uk