Review #800 - To Rome with Love (2012)
THE SCOOP
Director: Woody Allen
Cast: Woody Allen, Penélope Cruz, Jesse Eisenberg, Judy Davis, Ellen Page, Roberto Benigni, Alec Baldwin, Greta Gerwig.
Plot: The lives of some visitors and residents of Rome and the romances, adventures and predicaments they get into.
Genre: Comedy / Romance
Awards: -
Runtime: 112min
Rating: PG13 for some sexual references.
IN RETROSPECT (Spoilers: NO)
“If something is too good to be true, you can bet it's not.”
Am I one of a few who feels that To Rome with Love is a more engaging film than his previous
Oscar-winning picture, Midnight in Paris
(2011)? Yes, you have heard it right. Despite receiving mixed reviews that have
been an all too common indicator of the state of Allen's films in the last
decade or so, To Rome with Love is
surprisingly good and enjoyable. The bonus, of course, is to see the respected
auteur going back in front of the camera again, to satisfying aplomb, if I may
add.
Allen joins an ensemble cast that includes Alec
Baldwin, Jesse Eisenberg, Ellen Page, Roberto Benigni, Penelope Cruz, and many
more in this love letter to Rome. Allen's screenplay is as sharp (and neurotic)
as ever, even as seasoned fans of the writer-director find it more of the same. But same is always good. I mean the day Allen decides to do something
different, well not the kind of 'different' that defined Match Point (2005), but something out of character, he ceases to be
Woody Allen.
There is no real plot in To Rome with Love, just a loose intercutting of four major threads
that run their courses, with no definite closure. The film is character-driven,
and the characters are given life through the myriad of interactions, some
neurotic, some pseudo-neurotic, others plainly farcical - but all designed in
such a way as to reflect the idiosyncrasies of Italian culture, and the
'American' reaction to it, however humorous or impolite it seems.
To Rome with Love has a couple of flaws. Its running length is atypical
of Allen's usual fare, running close to two hours. Some of the scenes are
indeed repetitive, as if Allen is trying to hammer home a point, but what
point? Speaking of point, it would have been more focused to see less of
Baldwin's character, because he is simply, well, pointlessly redundant, acting
as Eisenberg's irritating conscience of sorts. It is intriguing at first, but
grows weary after a short while.
To Rome with Love is still a fun picture, perhaps more fun than any
Allen film in recent memory. It may not be as polished and creative as Midnight in Paris, or as scathingly
hilarious as some of his greatest works, but when you see Allen feeling
confident to appear on screen after quite some time, it goes to show how
delightful this film can promise to be.
GRADE: B
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