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To Rome With Love: Expect Woody Allen

Oct 19 2012.

Woody Allen is a polymath – writer, director, actor, playwright, comedian and musician – with an addiction to helming comedies. Spanning 43 pictures, his oeuvre is chock-full of masterpieces (Annie Hall, Manhattan), mediocrities (Sleeper, Bananas) and misfires (Cassandra’s Dream, Vicky Cristina Barcelona). Still, of the 30 I’ve seen, I’ve yet to come across one I haven’t enjoyed. To Rome With Love is rather average. But terribly entertaining.

Comprising an Italian and American ensemble cast, we follow four concurrent stories. There are the plebeians who become overnight sensations: office worker Leopoldo (Roberto Benigni) inexplicably transforms into a household celebrity and mortician Giancarlo (Fabio Armiliato) becomes an operatic phenomenon.

Then there are the happy couples seduced into infidelity. The first: Antonio (Alessandro Tiberi) and Milly (Alessandra Mastronardi), the former enticed by a prostitute, the latter by an actor. The second: Jack (Jesse Eisenberg) and Sally (Greta Gerwig), the young but naïve male architect besotted with the deceitful Monica (Ellen Page).

Chaos ensues, mired in the usual Allen tropes – neurosis, pseudo intellectuality and peculiar parents – yet not to an unhealthy extent.

Allen’s Midnight in Paris, released last year, was lauded by critics and fans the world over, being recognized as a return to form following a decade of dismal failures.

Any fan expecting the seventy-six year old auteur to surprise them again will likely be disappointed. To Rome With Love is run of the mill Allen, i.e. somewhat forgettable. But I lapped it up. Call me a die-hard fan but I will never tire of Allen’s wit.

It is impossible for any director to recurrently produce movie gold at Allen pace – a feature a year since ’71! – let alone Allen himself. But this is a man who will not give up; much like his character Jerry, he fears mortality. And for that, he must be admired.

To conclude: don’t expect change, do expect Woody Allen.

Stars: ★★★

By Rehan Alexander Mudannayake

To Rome with Love (2012)