To Rome with Love

I won't be too harsh, because I had a good time - even the love triangle, which would have been really stale, was pleasantly revived by Woody Allen this time with a "conscience" played by Alec Baldwin and helped by the excellent Ellen Page. But apart from that, I was really impressed by the parts with the celebrity from the people (the perfect Robert Benigni) and also with the singer in the shower, which reminded me of Allen's absurd short stories. And Penélope Cruz was also sensational - besides her breathtaking beauty, she was able to use her comedic talent this time, which she did. (01/17/2016)

The narrative of To Rome with Love offers poor justification for the transparent attempt to cram into the film as many shots of picturesque Roman lanes and attractive tourist locations as possible – if the Italian way of life is thematised, it is without any sense of detachment, from the perspective of a person who is uncritically enthusiastic about everything Italian (food, opera, historical sights and the language, which are among the few aspects that make watching this film a tolerable experience). There is a minimum of jokes that require the viewer to think (and it’s better not to think too much even about the few better lines that Allen kept for himself) – more often, something “humorously” falls on someone or someone is caught in flagranti with someone else and, most often, i.e. through most of the film, nothing funny happens at all. Resignation to a more complexly constructed narrative – the stories are not connected by anything except the city and the subject of love, nor are they in any way intertwined, and due to their varying degrees of fantasticalness, it would have made more sense if one had just followed the end of the previous one. Blatant sexism in the treatment of the female characters – the more three-dimensional heroines (Greta Gerwig, Judy Davis) are given significantly less space than the passionate Anna, the superficial Monica and the unsophisticated Milly, for whom intimate contact with a man she only recently met is as natural a part of the day as morning hygiene. The hackneyed plots and the shared wisdom – if you are lenient enough to accept that Allen is telling us something other than “I visited Rome and had a wonderful time”. There is an excess of Allen’s neuroticism, probably in an attempt to save time on coming up with new characters – three agitated male characters are too many for one film. The result? Woody Allen’s weakest comedy (and I’ve seen What’s Up, Tiger Lily?). 50% (07/19/2012)

Although Woody’s previous visits to the old continent (and most of those to London too) are a cut above this, it doesn’t mean that this satirical farce in Rome isn’t any good. It is good, but at the same time too over-combined, so the good in it (and there’s lots of that) is mixed up with everything average to bad (and there’s a lot of that too). (07/13/2012)

Woody Allen continues to travel around Europe, and this time he visited one of the most important cities in history. Rome, where civilization was built. However, as one heroine of the film remarks, it is strange to see something so beautiful reduced to ruins. Italians are a nation that is specific with their nature, love for cuisine, which I share with them, that is their love for their cuisine, but they also love football, good clothing, and music. Woody Allen focused mainly on music in one of his stories. That is the best part of the whole film. The music is perfect, but that is nothing unusual. Woody Allen simply has an ear for music. Although Italian is used in the middle of the film, I did not feel that the film expressed much about Italian nature. The plot of the individual stories, which make up the film and are interconnected without any connection, except for the location, could easily take place anywhere else. It could be in New York and one would not be surprised if Italian was spoken. It is a pity that Woody Allen got so little out of it. This time it is really just about the stories and he did not seem interested in the setting, as he used in the film "Vicky Cristina Barcelona". That had to take place in Spain. The nature of the Spaniards was portrayed brilliantly there, which also applies to the film "To Rome with Love", where Penélope Cruz appears in one of the stories again. Some actors give excellent performances, while others are rather invisible, Robert Benigni's storyline is completely unnecessary, even though he tried. It is very pleasing that Woody Allen himself returned as an actor, being wonderfully absent-minded, stubborn, and crazy again. However, "To Rome with Love" is not the best film Allen has made recently. More: http://www.filmovy-denik.cz/2013/01/volte-me-sousedska-hlidka-universal.html (03/04/2013)

Another bland and half dead film by Allen. Rome has a lot of charm, but it can’t do much by itself. Storywise, To Rome with Love is about nothing and when it comes to the humour, well, I chuckled a little here and there, but nothing hilarious, really. Everything is ruled by predictability and lack of interest. Even the on paper strongest and most original absurd story of a bureaucrat who becomes famous out of nowhere… Everyone knows how it will turn out: that the exaggerated interest by the press will vanish just as fast, that he will feel relieved immediately after, but soon will start to miss his fame. And that is actually it. I wasn’t crazy about Midnight in Paris, either, but objectively it’s substantially better than this one. (12/14/2012)