Woody Allen's Rome

'To Rome With Love' Directed by Woody Allen. Starring Roberto Benigni, Jesse Eisenberg, Ellen Page and Alec Baldwin. In English and Italian with subtitles.


    "Movie theatres are temples for the maladjusted," one Italian film critic once said in a book on Woody Allen.
    Allen's Rome may be a temple for the maladjusted too. Five couples converge on Rome or already live in it but not always happily. Allen plays a retired nervous U.S. opera producer who comes to Rome with his wife, played by Judy Davis. Allen makes his daughter's { Alison Pill's} father-in-law-to be famous by having him sing operatic songs in a shower. This part of the film  can make you howl with laughter.
      Roberto Benigni wakes up everyday as an anonymous white collar worker. Suddenly he becomes famous as paparazzi crawl over him. Then suddenly he's anonymous again. "I'm Leopoldo Pisanello," he says. "A schmuck."
    A young Italian couple, played by Alesssandro Tiberi and Alessandra Mastronardi go to the Eternal City to live there. They both get swept up in love affairs that don't destroy their marriage.
     A young architectural student played by Jesse Eisenberg falls in love with a flaky actress played by Ellen Page. He nearly loses his down-to-earth girlfriend played by Greta Gerwig. This part of the film was weak, though Alec Baldwin gives us some good moments, as he pops up to give Eisenberg some advice on love and its pains.
       And last but not least, there's Alison Pill, Allen's and Davis's daughter who"s in love with a very left-wing lawyer.
      But all of this,alas, doesn't add up to much. Allen gives us beautiful shots of Rome, especially its tourist spots like the Colossuem and the Spanish Steps. This film is really an old man's ode to a far older city.
      "In this city, all life is a story," a Roman traffic cop says. But in Allen's 42nd film as a director, the stories have little impact.