To Rome with Love (2012) User Reviews

Four Independent Stories of Love, Adultery and Dreams in Rome

[claudio_carvalho · 7/10 · 13 January 2013]

In Rome, the America tourist Hayley (Alison Pill) meets the local Michelangelo (Flavio Parenti) on the street and soon they fall in love with each other. Hayley's parents, the psychiatrist Phyllis (Judy Davis) and the retired music producer Jerry (Woody Allen), travel to Rome to meet Michelangelo and his parents. When Jerry listens to Michelangelo's father Giancarlo (Fabio Armiliato) singing opera in the shower, he is convinced that he is a talented opera singer. But there is a problem: Giancarlo can only sing in the shower.

The couple Antonio (Alessandro Tiberi) and Milly (Alessandra Mastronardi) travel to Rome to meet Antonio's relatives that belong to the high society. Milly goes to the hairdresser while Antonio waits for her in the room. Milly gets lost in Rome and the prostitute Anna (Penélope Cruz) mistakenly goes to Antonio's room. Out of the blue, his relatives arrive in the room and they believe Anna is Antonio's wife. Meanwhile the shy Milly meets her favorite actor Luca Salta (Antonio Albanese) and goes to his hotel room "to discuss about movies".

One day, the middle-class clerk Leopoldo (Roberto Benigni) becomes a celebrity and is hunted by the paparazzo. A couple of days later, he is forgotten by the media.

The American architect John (Alec Baldwin) travels to Rome with his wife and feels nostalgic since he lived in the city thirty years ago when he was a student. He meets the student of architecture Jack (Jesse Eisenberg), who lives on the same street that John had lived, and he invited to drink a coffee at his house. Jack lives with his girlfriend Sally (Greta Gerwig) that invites her best friend Monica (Ellen Page) to stay with them in their house. But soon Jack has a crush on Monica.

"To Rome with Love" is a romantic movie by Woody Allen with four independent stories of love, adultery and dreams in the Eternal City. The most curious is that the stories are not entwined like usually happens in this type of movie.

The story of the caretaker that can only sing operas in the shower is sarcastic, with the typical humor of Woody Allen that performs a neurotic and insecure character.

The story of Antonio and Milly is funny, with the sexy Penélope Cruz performing a prostitute with a perfect Italian.

The story of Leopold is a joke with the present moment of the world, where mediocrity becomes famous without reason only because, for example, she is hot or he is a soccer player.

The story of John is thought provoking, with a mature man returning to his youth trying to fix his own mistakes. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Para Roma, com Amor" ("To Rome with Love")

Enjoyable Woody Allen Flick

[Loving_Silence · 7/10 · 22 June 2012]

Although nowhere near Woody Allen's great films like Annie Hall, Manhattan, Hannah and her Sisters and Midnight in Paris, To Rome with Love is still a charming, and entertaining film. Some have called the film, Woody Allen's worst film, and I simply don't agree. (His worse film is Scoop) The whole cast works nicely and all the performances are all around great. My favorite being Judy Davis, she stole the show for me.

I found some of the scenes rushed and haphazardly constructed and some of the dialogue overwritten and under-rehearsed. The film at times, felt very lazy and a bit fake, at times. At 112 Mimutes, To Rome with Love is a good 20 minutes longer than most Woody Allen films, and it shows. The movie was overlong and a bit boring at times. There weren't enough charming and funny scenes to compensate for it's running time. Some scenes should've definitely been cut. Woody Allen's latest effort is flawed, but definitely not a bad film, as most are saying.

7/10

A Half Cooked Italian Dish

[littlemartinarocena · 5/10 · 30 June 2012]

Rome must be one of the most photogenic cities in the world, no matter how you look at it or who is looking. The Rome of Fellini with all its magic corners or Pasolini's Rome with its poetic darkness. Woody Allen's Rome is pure postcard glitter. What a let down. This is Allen's weakest script so far. Seems undecided and downright lazy. The tribute to Fellini's "The White Sheik" verges on theft and the Italian actors delivering their lines in Italian look and sound as participants of a provincial amateur hour. Even Oscar winner Roberto Benigni gives a pale and tired life to a thoroughly underwritten character. Allen himself is very good as is Judy Davis as his wife. But, I wonder what was in the writer/director's mind. I believe that in Allen's filmography from best to worst, To Rome With Love will appear very near the bottom. But, let's not despair, the master is already prepping his next flick.

a light trifle for Woody Allen is still amusing, hit-and-miss entertainment

[Quinoa1984 · 7/10 · 2 September 2012]

You kinda always know what you'll get with Woody Allen films by this point, which is that for every work that he does that knocks it out of the park (Match Point, Midnight in Paris), he'll come back and then... make a film that just stays as a single or double, to use baseball terms (i.e. Scoop, and this film). To Rome with Love is another "Woody's European City Tour" that follows London, Barcelona and of course Paris, and with Rome he pays tribute by doing one of those Italian anthology comedies (I haven't seen a lot of them frankly, but I'm thinking like back in the 60's with Boccaccio 62), and there are four stories that Woody could also have made individual films. Well, two would have been potentially amazing if they had the right focus (one of them, not so much, the time it has here is fine). Let's quickly rundown:

Woody himself returns for the first time on screen since Scoop (a little too old to be the romantic lead anymore, aside from, say, married to Judy Davis), and he and his wife go to see their daughter, played by Allison Pill, who is set to get married to Michelangelo. His parents are simple Roman folk, the father a mortician... who is also an amazing opera singer, but the catch is that he can only sing great in the shower (don't we all?) so Woody makes a trick: have him sing in the shower - on STAGE! Alec Baldwin plays a guy who, I think, looks back on his younger self as an impressionable architect (Jesse Eisenberg, very Woody-esque surrogate, but plays his own strengths well as well) who has a new romantic interest in the super-neurotic actress Ellen Page plays (a different turn for her that I had fun watching, though intentionally annoying as a character). An Italian couple are in love and are unfortunately separated and, through wacky misunderstandings, wind up with other partners over the course of one day. And Roberto Benigni is a regular guy chased by the paparazzi. Why? Why not?

Woody juggles between these stories and, the worst I can say about it is, it has an air of a sitcom to it. There's some misunderstandings and usually around fame or love or sex, or all of the above, and it's not too deep. Well, maybe the Baldwin/Eisenberg plot has some poignancy about a Man of the World who looks back on his youthful indiscretion, or would-be one, and there is a lot of humor to be mined. Hell, it's great to see Benigni have fun and be actually funny again in his premise, where he starts to go down deeper in the rabbit hole of fame. And while it's the weakest plot of all with the two Italian lovers split apart, when Penelope Cruz comes on screen for her brief time she's sexy, fun, and intelligent in her acting. Even Woody Allen himself, telling a lot of the brand of old, semi-corny jokes (but ALWAYS with a knowing wit and punchline) is amusing.

But when comedy works, it works, and there's a lot of stuff that worked here for me more than it didn't. Just seeing the old Italian man singing in the shower on stage (and applying/washing off Pagliaci make- up!) is a gag that only the most cynical would turn off on. It's a master filmmaker having fun, and a jazz clarinetist (yeah, I'm going there) noodling around on his instrument in a cinematic sort of way. I think for the summer season, which has passed know, it's a fine way to spend an afternoon or evening, not to mention with a wonderful cast by older-and-young Hollywood players and Italian not-so-well-known folks. Just not in an OMG YOU MUST SEE THIS IT WILL WIN AN Oscar sort of experience.

Funny comedy

[giuliociacchini · 6/10 · 18 November 2020]

This is a funny comedy although, as the film goes on, it becomes very intricated and the various plots that are within the film gets too much unreal and sex based.

Why people can't appreciate this? 7/10

[saadanathan · 7/10 · 28 February 2021]

"To Rome with Love" is a fantastic and beautiful movie by none other than Woody Allen. All of his movies are about cute, funny and complex love stories happening at the same time in one location. In this film in particular, you have four love stories happening at the same time in one of the most beautiful cities in the world. A great cast starring Jesse Eisenberg, Ellen Page, Alec Baldwin, Roberto Benigni and Allen himself. Along with other good actors all do a great job together. We as the viewers who try to understand Allen's movies most of the time can see his elements repeating themselves again in this film such as: the love affairs amongst the characters, the long filming of the locations, the beauty of life shown that not everything can be achieved, how the characters are left with his/her loved ones, how all stories end with a closed ending, etc. Personally I always enjoy Allen's movies and kind of hoped this one wouldn't end so quickly, something about all the plot points during the movie were really compelling. When I saw on the page of the film the rating it got. I just couldn't understand why people can't appreciate Allen's movies nowadays? Is it that hard to enjoy a romance movie these days? In rome?

Allen's Most Disappointing Film from Europe

[nolandalla-447-695930 · 3/10 · 11 August 2012]

Woody Allen's seventh postcard from Europe lacks enough postage. It should be rubber-stamped "Return to Sender." This is undoubtedly the most disappointing of all his films set in Europe.

Following a lifetime spent channeling New York's neurotic side, creating some of the most memorable roles in modern film history (Annie Hall, Leonard Zelig, Danny Rose, and of course – Allen himself), the 76-year-old film legend abruptly departed his familiar Manhattan backdrop in 2004, taking his introspective wit across the Atlantic, initially to London, then Barcelona, followed by Paris, and now Rome.

His latest release To Rome with Love has all the ingredients of yet another tasty Allen stew. But in the end, all we sample is watered-down broth, poorly seasoned, with stale recollections of the spicy flavors that made Match Point, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, and Midnight in Paris so thoroughly original and enjoyable.

To be fair to Allen, he's coming off his biggest commercial success ever, which is a hard act to follow. Since his heyday as a writer-director-star during the 1970s, Allen's films haven't performed particularly well at the box office. But like summer stock theater, they tend to make just enough money to keep Allen atop the list of directors most actors long to work with. For that reason, Allen pretty much gets his pick of the litter as to who he casts in his films, and often writes characters perfectly suited to the typecasting.

Indeed for Allen, the blockbuster 2011 hit Midnight in Paris was tough to match – either critically or commercially. But not only does To Rome with Love fall far short, it doesn't even belong on the same continent.

The plot is very familiar territory for fans of Allen's films. Three stories are supposedly entwined, full of quirky characters, ultimately providing audiences with humor, greater understanding, and ultimately-- revelation. That was supposed to be recipe.

Trouble is, this time around none of the stories Allen has penned are particularly interesting or memorable. Predictably, Allen does manage to steal one segment, playing a bored American retiree who is accompanying his wife to Italy. They are scheduled to meet their daughter's soon-to-be husband, and family. As one can imagine, the interaction between Allen and the non-English speaking Italian family has its moments. The story blossoms when Allen unexpectedly discovers the Italian father can sing like Caruso. But the high point of this operatic mini-drama becomes too forced, testing the audience's patience to say nothing of straining credibility.

In the second story, Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network) plays an American student living in Rome along with his girlfriend. When the girlfriend invites "Monica" to pay a visit, played wonderfully by Ellen Page (Juno), Eisenberg becomes infatuated with the new house guest and the fireworks begin. The always reliable Alec Baldwin, perfectly cast as the debonair know-it-all, oddly provides a voice of reason during Eisenberg's degenerative courtship, hoping to stop his protégé from making a complete fool of himself.

The final story seems both camp and patronizing, cookie-cutting arguably the only Italian actor widely recognizable to American audiences (Roberto Benigni -- Life is Beautiful) as the warm roasting chestnut to provide some wildly-exaggerated depiction of the "average" Italian. This story gets old quick, and drags down what would otherwise be at least a mildly entertaining film.

Italy should be perfect canon fodder for Allen's innumerable idiosyncrasies. A nation of wildly-gesturing people full of passion about everything -- art, soccer, food, whatever -- seems the perfect foil for all of Allen's self-centered New Yorkers. Instead, the opportunity is wasted. The film might as well have been shot in Cleveland.

Without giving away too much, there's no payoff in the end. For audiences expecting to see the combustible explosion during the final climactic scene from Allen's vast cinematic laboratory, we are left wondering why any of this mattered.

And that's the trouble – it didn't.

In his masterful 47-year film career, Allen rarely delivers a product that seems so unfinished. It's as though Allen wrote a (somewhat decent) first draft, and then suddenly called in the cameras to start shooting. Allen knows very well that greatness comes through time and repetition.

Like fine wine, this one needed to age a bit. It was served far too early. And like so many bad Chiantis, the tannins were overwhelming to the point of being undrinkable.

Not among Allen's greats, but still a lot of fun

[runamokprods · 8/10 · 9 November 2012]

While not great Woody Allen – it's neither profound, moving nor funny enough for that title, it is quite enjoyable.

The film is made up of four intercut short stories, that share little other than the fact they're set in Rome. Some have fantasy elements, some are more absurdist, others more straightforward character farce.

But somehow, though they don't make much of a logical grouping, the whole thing is lighthearted and fun enough that it seems grumpy to pick on it.

Sure some jokes fall flat and some ideas seem unfulfilled, but a lot of it is wonderfully acted and cleverly written. And at a time when so many comedies are aimed only at 15 year olds, even 2nd tier Woody, simply telling playfully comic tales, is a welcome sight.

The warmth of banked embers

[boblipton · 7/10 · 30 June 2012]

For most of the past decade Woody Allen has been revisiting old themes in new places. He writes a witty script, hires a good cameramen, has great actors flock to him because he writes great lines for them and directs the film efficiently. So we have travel vistas that he has even been putting the city's name in, like VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA, MIDNIGHT IN Paris and now the Fellini-esque TO ROME WITH LOVE.

If you get the idea that I look down on these efforts, let me say I enjoy them very much. Mr. Allen has reached an age and ability in his craft where he can do things easily and smoothly, so that the three farces that make up this anthology set in the Eternal City offer some wonderful excuses to show off the city. My favorite is the one about Roberto Benigni, an ordinary man who suddenly finds himself a celebrity upon whom the media hang. His bewilderment is a lovely, comic performance. However, if you prefer the one about the retired record producer who makes the machetunim an opera sensation in the shower or the the one about the young temptress, that's fine too.

a wasted opportunity

[paolocasonato · 5/10 · 1 May 2012]

"To Rome with Love" is a less successful movie than "Midnight in Paris", which is a little masterpiece, even though it had a much more ambitious goal.

Stories and characters are enjoyable (apart from Benigni, who in the end is less overacting than usual), but the flaw is in the background. Italy, as it is represented, is neither present Italy nor past, probably more similar to the one represented in the movies of the 50s or 60s .

Woody Allen's movie is a sincere tribute to Rome as seen in the history of cinema. However, this 'golden age' portrait, if compared to the present, seems alienating and little plausible: he might as well have done a costume film...

Some highlights are particularly appreciated though: first of all Alec Baldwin's character, then Penelope Cruz's, the "newly-weds story" (which was sufficient by itself to give a shade of Italian Comedy,)and finally the splendid photography. But on the other hand the movie is filled with a sensation of horror vacui that makes it a bit heavy and prolix (which is uncommon in Woody Allen).

It was a pity. Knowing the outstanding results Mr Allen has achieved in portraying human troubles and tragedies, one is left with the curiosity to know how he would have managed to portray (or allude to) the tragicomic current events that Italian reality abundantly offers.

But he would have needed a deeper look, which is hardly possible when one shoots two movies a year. So, instead of a big fresco portrait, the outcome is a nice little postcard.

All of your heart's fantasies played out in Rome with love, celebrities, death and opera

[napierslogs · 9/10 · 17 July 2012]

"To Rome with Love" is a fantasy film; a comedy about people living out their fantasies. The great thing about it is that it's subtle enough that you don't recognize the fantasy element in all of the relationships until later on in the film. The obvious one is when native Roman, Leopoldo Pisanello (Roberto Benigni), becomes a celebrity over night. "It's better to be a celebrity than an unknown." And as Benigni shows, way funnier too.

It's the type of film where everybody gets to see themselves as famous, or supremely interesting, or a guiding angel, or married to a hooker, or the object of a movie star's affections, or on a romantic rendezvous with a thief, or having the ability to change the world with one simple idea. It will take you to wherever your heart desires. And then you'll realize why it's often advised to think with your brain rather than with your heart.

Half Italian and half English, we follow two relationships involving Romans and two relationships with Americans in Rome. A young, Italian, married couple get separated and the young man finds himself living out every other young man's fantasies while the young woman finds herself living out her own fantasies.

Hayley (Alison Pill), a New Yorker transplanted in Rome, falls in love and gets engaged to a successful Roman lawyer. Her parents (Woody Allen and Judy Davis) make the trek across the ocean to meet their in-laws. But Allen's obsession with death and equating retirement with death causes him to create a national disaster (or success story, depending on how you look at it).

Jack (Jesse Eisenberg) is an American architect living in Rome with his girlfriend. First he meets his architecture idol, John (Alec Baldwin), who sees Jack as the younger version of himself. Or more accurately, Jack sees John as the older version of himself (the joke works better that way). Then Jack meets Monica (Ellen Page) who is his girlfriend's best friend and is the object of all men's fantasies.

Page also gets to play the role of the self-obsessed, pseudo-intellectual — commonly referred to as "the pedantic one" in most Woody Allen movies. Other than Allen himself, Eisenberg and Baldwin play a sort of tag-team version of the self-deprecating, neurotic hero, although this time with a touch of confidence.

Confidence is not to be confused with optimism because as funny as "To Rome with Love" is, it also has Allen's usual undertone of pessimism. Death is going to come sooner than you would like, but not soon enough. And even if you do get to live out your heart's fantasies, they may not lead to everything that you hoped for. This film is the comedy version of death and negativity, and can provide you with the simple joys in life.

Woody Allen sets his camera on Rome this time weaving together an anthology of stories and interjecting Rome as its own character

[chaz-28 · 6/10 · 6 July 2012]

We have seen Woody Allen's multiple love letters to New York City, London, Barcelona, and Paris; now he sets his satirical eye on the ancient city of Rome. Starting halfway through the previous decade, Woody Allen altered his standard oeuvre from mostly comedic farce with a dash of autobiographical drama set amongst towering New York skyscrapers to films set in major European centers where the city itself is almost its own character. Barcelona nudged its way into the love triangle of Vicky Christina Barcelona and Paris's nightclubs and streets were a central character along with Ernest Hemingway and Gertrude Stein in Midnight in Paris. In To Rome with Love, Woody is even less subtle about his intentions by loudly proclaiming in the film's title what he is up to.

There are multiple stories entering and exiting the stage with even more characters; however, unlike the majority of films which juggle numerous plot lines, these do not intersect; they exist by themselves and involve their own unique Roman characteristics. There is John (Alec Baldwin) who chooses to retrace his former life as a young man in Rome 30 years ago and ends up having a very interesting encounter with Jack (Jesse Eisenberg), Sally (Greta Gerwig), and the flippant Monica (Ellen Page). John has seen it all before and sets himself up as a Greek Chorus variant to the younger crowd. By the end of their section, every man in the audience over 30 should be nodding their heads in agreement about the Sally vs. Monica pros and cons. Their love triangle is a convenient excuse to insert the ancient ruins and architecture which you knew must fit somewhere in the film.

Hayley (Alison Pill) is in her early 20s and fulfills one of the ultimate lost tourist clichés in Rome; she bumps into Michelangelo (Flavio Parenti), falls in love, and decides to spend the rest of her life in Italy. Upon hearing the news, Hayley's parents, Phyllis (Judy Davis) and Jerry (Allen), jet over to Rome to meet this guy and survey the situation. In his typical Woody Allen way, Jerry has a lot to say about the turbulence on the flight over, sizes up Michelangelo as a Communist, and can barely stand the irony that Michelangelo's father, Giancarlo (Fabio Armiliato), is an undertaker. Leave it to Woody to be able to fit his absolute phobia of death and all its accompaniments into a film about Rome. This particular film segment uses Roman opera as its backdrop with a very clever farce involving singing in the shower.

The most blatant comedic segment in the film is Leopoldo (Roberto Benigni). He is just a regular working stiff who wakes up at the same time every morning, eats his toast, goes to work, engages in water cooler talk, and comes home. One day, Leopoldo starts getting chased by obsessive paparazzi and screaming autograph seekers wherever he goes who want to know what he likes on his toast, how he shaves, and whether he is a boxers or briefs man. There is no reason for his sudden fame explosion which confuses Leopoldo all the more. This also confused the old ladies sitting next to me; however, this was a brilliant way for Allen to skewer the celebrity fetish. Some people are famous for just being famous even though they have accomplished absolutely nothing.

It seems Woody Allen used his most recent European love letter to fit in some messages he has had stirring around his brain for a little bit. He tackles the odd fascination with know- and do-nothing celebrities, the appeal of going after the vapid and attractive female even though you know she is ridiculous and it will only end badly, and what I suppose is a critique of not being a prude at the beginning of marriage. Milly (Alessandra Mastronardi) and Antonio (Alessandro Tiberi) have just arrived in Rome after their wedding to start their new life. Through a silly and contrived sequence of events which only serve to set up a ridiculous situation, Antonio winds up with a stunningly gorgeous prostitute, Anna (Penelope Cruz), and Milly winds up tempted by her most favorite actor in the world. This particular part of the film does not work too well but it does provide plenty of laughs as inappropriately clad Anna visits the Vatican.

To Rome with Love is not among the top tier of Woody Allen's decade long infatuation with filming in European locales (Midnight in Paris) but it is certainly not the worst (Scoop). Weaving in and out of these disconnected plot lines is fun and most of them are quite enjoyable. Using Rome and all of its wonderful settings to tie all of his characters together easily helps out what will most likely become one of the more middle of the road and average Wood Allen pictures. However, it is worth noting than an average Woody Allen film is head and shoulders above what is playing down the street in your local multiplex right now.

A disappointment from Woody Allen

[gridoon2024 · 5/10 · 26 September 2012]

The opening sequence of this film filled me with hope....Rome, probably my favorite city in the world, seen through the awestruck eyes of Woody Allen....unfortunately, until the equally magnificent closing scene, he doesn't really make Rome an integral part of his stories....of course there are a few token references to the Collosseum and the Vatican, but also a few too many interior shots. Woody himself, at age 77, is still the funniest performer in the film, AND of course he gives himself most of the best lines as well ("He does it for pleasure, not for money" - "Well, there is a lot of pleasure IN money"!). But while his segment is pretty funny, it's also basically one-joke. The segment with the Italian couple moving to the big city begins well and the couple is appealing, but it goes astray when it turns into a story of double infidelity; this could have been handled either as an all-out farce or as a serious drama, but Allen seems, rather disagreeably, to imply that the whole incident was beneficial to the couple! Nevertheless, this segment includes the three loveliest women in the film, the adorable up-and-coming Alessandra Mastronardi, the getting-hotter-every-year Penelope Cruz, and a cameo by the ageless Ornella Muti! (she should have had a bigger part). The segment with the American couple who find their relationship tested by the arrival of the girl's uninhibited best female friend feels mostly artificial and unconvincing - perhaps because Ellen Page never quite succeeds in looking like a strong enough temptation for Jesse Eisenberg to abandon Gret Gerwig. As for the Roberto Benigni segment, it's pointless, unfunny and repetitive. When I saw "Il Mostro" at the theater in the mid-1990s, the audience was roaring with laughter; during 90% of Benigni's scenes in "To Rome With Love" the audience was dead quiet. Overall, a lightweight disappointment from Woody, though not without moments of pleasure for his fans. ** out of 4.

Good start, average end

[aheaven2005 · 6/10 · 21 July 2022]

The movie strated strong with good stories that all had a strange side to them. Sadly that side took over and made things boring for the last act as we loose connection with the characters.

Not the best Woody Allen but still fun

[bptr-1 · 7/10 · 14 July 2013]

Cartoonish with bad contrived forced acting (like a dry run-through of a script). This required a huge suspension of disbelief on the viewer's part. Why was Woody even in this? He is FAR too old to be a plausible parent - should have been the grandparent. He apparently decided to take the bold approach of having his usual stand-in little Jewish kid (Jesse Eisenberg) AND himself in the movie (some kind of existential paradox?). Having said that, I do still like Woody in his own films - but I want him off to the side as in Scoop. The only actors who were good were Roberto Benigni (outstanding), Alec Baldwin, Penélope Cruz, and Greta Gerwig. Also, Fabio Armiliato is a fantastic singer,

Here Woody Allen takes his own invented genre to its own cartoonist extreme. We, the viewers, are supposed to suspend all sense of reality to accept this. This is the new genre of Woody Allen totally using a city as a crutch to support any contrivance of a plot and script. It is like each actor is doing a Woody Allen imitation (are they that intimidated by his presence???). He also relies on his tired formula of having several unrelated story lines intertwined.

If you drop your critical eye and just enjoy this movie, it is entertaining. Actually the brilliant Roberto Benigni makes this movie on his own. He is hilarious. Penelope Cruz is also a lot of fun.

p.s. I can't believe that reviewer Grey Gardens called Scoop Woody Allen's worst film! I loved that movie.

Just a fun romp, as most Woody Allen movies are.

[TxMike · 11 February 2013]

As the extra on the DVD explains, Woody Allen is a fan of the older Italian movies and wanted to do an homage of sorts, to make a movie in Rome with some of the Italian style and comedy represented in those older movies.

He has several, independent, parallel stories going on, each with its own quirks. I like Woody himself in small doses and here he has one of the roles, as a dad, recently retired from the classical music business, traveling to Rome to see his daughter and meet her Italian fiancée. Most of the humor involves Giancarlo, the father of the fiancée, and the actor is Fabio Armiliato, who in actuality is a well-respected operatic tenor. He is an undertaker and they discover that he sings really well in the shower, but only does so-so in the audition that he very reluctantly goes to. The solution is funny, they modify well-known operas so that he always sings while taking a shower, and the audience loves him.

Roberto Benigni, of "Life Is Beautiful" fame, plays Leopoldo, a lowly clerk, who one day is unexpectedly confronted by cameras and microphones, for no apparent reason everyone takes an interest in every detail of his life, what he eats for breakfast, what kind of shaving cream he uses, whether he wears briefs or boxers. He is very annoyed. Of course it is Woody's comment on people who become "famous for being famous" with no basis. Later when people lose interest in him he misses the attention and tries to get it back.

There is a bit about a young aspiring architect meeting up with an architect who had, like the young architect, lived in the same area of Rome 30 years earlier. Now he is known for designing shopping centers.

Another bit is about a young couple taking their honeymoon in Rome and getting separated, he meeting up with a hooker, she with a hotel robber, then finding out they would rather lead a more normal life away from Rome.

You can look for deep meaning in Woody Allen films but to me there isn't any, just some humorous scenes and characters that more often than not are a commentary on some facet of our everyday lives. But examined from a unique Woody Allen angle.

An aside, for years Woody Allen has insisted that his movies have a "mono" soundtrack, because that is the way it was at movie houses. Yes it "was", many years ago. But modern movie houses have incorporated some form of "surround sound" for years now. Well this movie, "To Rome With Love" has a Dolby 5.1 surround sound track. And when I went back to check, "Midnight in Paris" (2011) did too. But every movie before that is listed with a "mono" sound. It is nice to see Woody Allen has finally accepted modern sound design, it makes the movie much more enjoyable.

some good moments

[blanche-2 · 6/10 · 28 May 2014]

I've said it before and I'll say it again - you can't churn out movies the way Woody Allen does and not have a few clinkers along the way. To Rome with Love is not a masterpiece, but it has some good scenes.

Set in beautiful, breathtaking Rome, the film tells four stories: A retired opera director (Allen) visiting his daughter and her new fiancée discovers the boy's father can sing like Caruso; a prostitute (Penelope Cruz) is mistaken for a man's wife by his family; the man's wife is quite naive, ends up on a film studio and is taken to the apartment of one of her favorite actors; a man (Alec Baldwin) returns to the place of his youth and serves as the conscience/adviser to a young man (Jesse Eisenberg) about to fall for his girlfriend's friend (Ellen Page). And a director (Roberto Benigni) becomes an overnight celebrity and is hounded everywhere he goes.

Some of these worked better than others. I'm partial to the opera singer story - Allen and Judy Davis play Jerry and Phyllis, the parents of Hayley (Allison Pitt), and her future father-in-law, Giancarlo, is portrayed by opera star Fabio Armiliato. Giancarlo's voice is magnificent, but only when he's in a shower, so Allen comes out of retirement (which he is dying to do) and stages a Pagliacci with Canio in a portable, decorated shower.

My second favorite is the newlyweds, featuring Alessandro Tiberi as Antonio, Penelope Cruz as Anna, and Alessandra Mastronadi as Milly. This is the most "Italian" part of the film and perhaps the most successful. Milly leaves the hotel, becomes terribly lost, and loses her cell phone. While she's wandering around, Anna (Cruz) enters Antonio and Milly's hotel room, mistaking it for the room she was to go to, and starts trying to kiss Antonio on the bed, just as Antonio's relatives arrive. His uncle mistakes her for Milly, and she goes along with it.

Milly, meanwhile, finds herself at a movie studio and meets her favorite actor, who wants to seduce her. Everyone winds up at the same restaurant together.

I didn't find the acting all that great, particularly in the beginning; it seemed very artificial, though later, I didn't find that as much. I frankly found the Jesse Eisenberg-Ellen Page story a little annoying, as I did the Robert Begnini one. By the way, Penelope Cruz in a tight-fitting, short red dress was drop dead gorgeous.

All in all, worth seeing. I think Allen always has something to offer and even at his age is trying new techniques and new cities.

Pointless is an understatement

[hoochie3333 · 1/10 · 7 July 2012]

I am a fan of Woodie Allen, even if I didn't always like all his movies (but I have many favorites). Even in movies I didn't enjoy I understood the point - "To Rome with Love" HAS NO POINT. The acting at times is bad, the stories are incoherent and the script surprisingly feels written by a 9 year old child... Something I never expected from a Woodie Allen movie.

I left the theater feeling I had undergone a social experiment by someone who wanted to see, after the success of "Midnight in Paris", if someone would stand up and shout "The king is naked!".

Of the 4 parallel story lines only 1 was somewhat watchable and that's because of Alec Baldwin, and even that storyline started so incoherently that it was hard to enjoy it for the rest of the movie.

A movie for fans

[juanpimartinez · 8/10 · 20 July 2012]

As time passes Woody Allen is able to transform himself and his movies. Don't get me wrong, it is obvious that we are seeing a Woody Allen film from the initial credits, but he still can surprise us.

We see different stories through out the film. Some show aspects of the Italian lifestyle and culture, presented from a beautiful Rome; that city that Allen wants to present to us, his Rome. But other stories present again the issues that have been important to him, those problems that for centuries have raised for humankind: love, infidelity, death, success, fame, happiness; those issues that Allen simply loves to discuss.

The cast is charming and I want to highlight a sincere Roberto Benigni; Jesse Eisenberg, that resembles perfectly the young Woody Allen; and the beautiful and talented Ellen Page, with a powerful character that makes you impossible not to fall in love with her.

I have the huge bias of been a Woody Allen fan and that is probably why I enjoyed so much this movie. It is thrilling to see him acting again. See all that neurosis again in the big screen. This movie surprises, can be as surreal as Buñuel would be and also as real as Allen is with daily problematics.

A Real Disappointment

[Moviegoer19 · 6/10 · 3 February 2013]

When I saw that a new Woody Allen film was out entitled To Rome With Love, I was thrilled, both because I usually enjoy his films, and because I am going to Rome for the first time in a couple of months. Well, what a letdown it was. Presenting the stories of a few couples and/or families and friends, the film seemed to be an attempt at Woody's usual m.o.'s, i.e., comedy, and his philosophical takes and questions on the things that matter to him, mainly male/female relationships, art/creativity, and life/death. While most of his films succeed in conveying both comic and philosophic perspectives on these issues, To Rome With Love did not. It came off as being a superficial, lightweight attempt at all of the above. In my opinion, some of the humor bordered on slapstick, and much of the script was predictable. I'm sorry to have to say all this as I was hoping for so much more. Maybe the next one will happen. Oh, and BTW, I think Woody should give up acting. At least in this film, he added nothing, and perhaps, detracted from it. The character he plays is hackneyed, worn out, and predictable. Better to have someone else play him, as in Midnight in Paris, which was so wonderful.

Huge Disappointment

[sap-prayaga · 3/10 · 13 September 2012]

What happened to the writer who had taken home the Oscar many times including last year? This is the most boring woody Allen movie I have ever seen. Not only that it is badly written,but also very boring.Usually, woody Allen never disappoints in visuals but this time, they are not what we expect from Allen. Not only the camera jerks but also visually,he did not show Rome as exotic as it is.

I would give four but being an Allen's fan, I am more disappointed and hence giving 3 star.It looked like he wrote the movie in a hurry after the Oscar winner 'Midnight in Paris'. In that movie, Paris was visually excellent and so was UK and new york in his previous films.But this time, Woody failed to show any beauty in Rome.Rome was dull and depressing here.Also the characters were always the plus points in his films.In 'To Rome with love',characters behave the way they are illogically especially the honeymoon couple. Singing under shower on stage is the most annoying scene(s) in woody Allen's career and it is not at all funny.

I was very happy to see woody back to form with 'Midnight in Paris' and he disappointed me with this

I FAILED HIGH SCHOOL SPANISH

[nogodnomasters · 8/10 · 19 July 2018]

The film consists of four parallel stories that take place in Rome. Each story is a criticism of the entertainment industry. Likewise the total movie is a criticism in that it which incorporates an over abundance of Italian music and formulaic plots. Allen also adds his frequent themes of sex, love, death, and culture.

In one tale celebrity status is spoofed as an ordinary man suddenly is famous for being famous.

In another tale we see a Hollywood actress have an affair with her friend's boyfriend. This was classic Allen as Alec Baldwin plays the voice of intellect and reason within all of our heads, the one we ignore when a woman becomes a possible conquest.

A third tale includes Allen himself as a retired producer with bad ideas, but has convinced himself he is simply ahead of his time.

The fourth tale involves a small town woman almost seduced by a celebrity, while her husband attempts to pass off a prostitute as his wife.

While the stories ran parallel, they were connected through the use of sound track and common style, as if to say, all movies about Italy are the same. I feel the film would have been better if Allen had left off that fourth story and spent more time on the other three. The episode with Ellen Page and Jesse Eisenberg with Alec Baldwin was my favorite and I wish they had stretched that one out. That was more of the old classic Woody Allen that I love. Perhaps if I was familiar with "The Decameron" I would have liked this film more.

Parental Guide: 1 F-bomb (thank you Ellen); no nudity. Implied sex and sex talk.

To Rome With Love: Not Midnight in Paris, but made me want to get on a plane to Rome...

[SundSideUp · 7/10 · 6 June 2013]

After seeing Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris last year, my cheeks hurt from grinning. Woody's love letter to Paris, filled with lavish photography of the city's famous sights had me scrambling to book tickets to the City of Light. Could he top it, or even come close?

To Rome With Love opens with Allen's characteristic credits rolling to the nostalgic strains of Volare. The cheesy Italian tourist music proclaims from the start what kind of movie this is: a fun frolic through Rome, its ruins, and its romantic traditions as passed down by decades of Roman Holiday-types of films.

Four separate vignettes reveal the plot, the narratives interweaving in no particular order, each illuminating a different Italian motif.

Allen's films attract top actors, and his direction and screenplays tend to bring out their best performances. In To Rome With Love, this is best seen in the sketch involving the American couple Sally and Jack (Greta Gerwig and Jesse Eisenberg) and Sally's best friend Monica (Ellen Page), visiting them in Rome. Sally constantly frets that Jack will fall in love with Monica, an actress who possesses an uncanny sex appeal. I had doubts whether Ellen Page could pull this off, but the Oscar-nominated actress (for 2007's Juno) and actor (Eisenberg, for 2010's The Social Network) make us believe it when Jack caves in to her magnetic sexiness. The presence of Alec Baldwin's character John provides an interesting temporal twist to this storyline. He plays an architect that Jack, an architecture student, has idolized. The two run into each other in Sally and Jack's Trastevere neighborhood and from then on John serves as a kind of Greek chorus to Jack (and sometimes to the women), warning him of Monica's less-than-authentic cultural qualifications and of blowing the good thing he's got with Sally.

The conflicting placements in time between Jack and John's story lines bewilder some viewers, but Woody leaves us the key, much like he did by opening the film with Volare. At one point, Monica gushes over the significance of Albert Camus' The Myth of Sisyphus, the quintessential Absurdist work that compares the plight of the Greek mythological figure Sisyphus with the absurdity of humanity. Allen has given us his own Absurdist take with To Rome With Love, not spoon-feeding us a straightforward intrigue, but asking us to suspend logic for several hours and enjoy the human spectacle as portrayed against sumptuous Roman scenery.

In another yarn, Oscar-winning Roberto Benigni (for 1997's Life is Beautiful) plays Leopoldo Pisanello, an ordinary man suddenly beset with inexplicable fame. There is nothing subtle about Allen's poking fun at the fickleness and aggressiveness of the paparazzi and at the public that accepts whatever the press feeds it. Benigni's troubles entertain while his character cycles through the phases of his notoriety.

Spain's Penelope Cruz (another Oscar winner, for Allen's 2008 Vicky Christina Barcelona) shows off her linguistic chops with a role as a prostitute in a third sketch completely in Italian. This one, an outright sex romp, follows the mayhem that ensues when a newlywed Italian couple arrives in Rome. The husband is there to take a position with the family firm. The wife disappears while out to get her hair done and Cruz's character assumes the role of his wife when the stodgy aunts and uncles misinterpret why she's caught in bed with the husband in the couple's hotel room. Implausible? Yes, and silly, but mostly it's Absurd, and throughout the rollicking action, we explore ideals of Italian love and sex, of the absurdity of star-struck fans hopping into bed with film stars, and we get to peek at the lovely Roman scenery behind it all.

The fourth tale is that of Giancarlo (played by tenor Fabio Armiliato), a mortician who sings like an opera star, but only when he's in the shower. Woody Allen plays a retired music producer that overhears Giancarlo and insists on bringing his talent before the masses. Their respective children Michelangelo and Hayley (Flavio Parenti and Alison Pill) are engaged and Jerry and Phyllis (Woody and Judy Davis) are in Italy to meet Michelangelo's parents. There are funny moments throughout To Rome With Love, but this sketch had me laughing out loud. The full theater chuckled almost every time Woody opened his mouth (especially when repeatedly mispronouncing "Michelangelo") and roared at the opera scenes. Stupidly funny, yes, but again, pure Absurdity is the point. How refreshing to belly laugh at a musical form like opera, one that takes itself so seriously.

To Rome With Love carries an "R" rating for the sexual references, and there is a lot of hopping in and out of bed, but there's not much to offend the sensitive viewer. As with Midnight in Paris, foreign language was spoken, with subtitles. Two of the sub-stories were completely in Italian. The Italian language, however, adds to the charm as much as the Coliseum, the Trevi Fountain, and the picturesque alleys of Trastevere.

I could have done without the bookending of the film with two different characters talking to the camera, explaining that there are all these stories taking place in Rome. The one at the beginning was mildly amusing, a flamboyant policeman directing traffic on the Piazza Venezia. I would have kept the scenery of the spectacular monument to Vittorio Emmanuele II, but cut the policeman's dialog along with that of the man on the balcony overlooking the Spanish Steps at the end of the film.

To Rome With Love wasn't Midnight in Paris, but I'm not sure anything will ever match that treasure. As with Midnight in Paris, though, I grinned throughout, and I find myself inclined to get on a plane for Rome. To Rome With Love has received criticism for not acknowledging the economic woes in Italy, but it shouldn't have—it wasn't that kind of movie. That movie's soundtrack wouldn't have opened with Volare.

Hackneyed

[ignatiusloyala · 4/10 · 28 August 2012]

Hollywood should stop Woody Allen producing movies if he is to recycle his genres over and over and over again.

'To Rome With Love' is a clichéd Woody Allen piece with his hackneyed signatures like multi-layered love stories, couples that came together due to accidents and a babbling, irritating Woody Allen in whichever boring roles he wrote for himself - that last bit has not changed a bit since Annie Hall and man, that was over 30 years ago.

While the film has moments of brilliance, the odd but banal plot does not save the day: Alec Baldwin's part was cheesy and awkward, and one wonders why his younger companions were not annoyed by his presence; what happened to Benigni was left unexplained - in a way it needs no explanation but it sounds ridiculous from the beginning - leaving one feeling somewhat disconnected to the story. In fact, all the stories are not connected, but it is not like Paris Je T'aime where the audience knows it contains unrelated stories. At times, I feel that Woody Allen was trying to make the stories stick together but failed. The incoherence has created such distance between the plot and the audience that the whole film looks like nothing more than a showcase of brilliant actors whose only job was to be beautiful in Rome.

Unbelievably bad

[treeline1 · 24 January 2013]

Four unrelated vignettes involving tourists, newlyweds, and quirky locals play out in Rome. The characters are neither sympathetic, likable, interesting, nor memorable. The plots are like fantasy daydreams but still manage to be incredibly tiresome. I was so glad when the movie was over.

On the plus side, the photography is exquisite. Rome is filmed in a warm, golden light that makes it look like a fairytale city for lovers. Some very good actors get stuck with trite material and Woody Allen is still playing the same loser character he's been doing for forty years.

Terrible movie.