Little Italy

Rating: 5/10 (10 July 2012)

This film is not recommended.
In Woody Allen 44th movie, aptly titled To Rome with Love, four stories try to become one whole film, with sporadic success. The film lacks cohesion, with some light romantic tales intermixed with stories of pure slapstick and farce. Occasionally the writer / director hits his stride, but the laughs seem infrequent and the comic rhythms never merge. This is minor Allen, but at least, he gets to travel.
During his prolific career as director / writer, Mr. Allen continues to try a hit-or-miss approach to his personal independent films. The filmmaker seems more concerned with the jokey punchlines and convoluted plot devices than creating any genuine depth or pathos with his characters and their circumstances. It's as if the director was at odds with the writer and neither would compromise their own point of view, sacrificing the final product.
After his witty and highly entertaining Oscar-winning film, Midnight in Paris, the Woodsman sets sail to another European location to create cinematic situations that deal with fame, infidelity, young love, unbridled passion, past regrets, and any flaw that makes us human. This setting is Roma, where love and sex delight and confuse its inhabitants on a regular basis.
The film is a dizzying mélange of the Eternal City, a giddy travelogue to this country and its most popular tourist destinations. It doesn't overstay its welcome, due to the fine ensemble cast, although, in one particular segment, it does come darn close. Still one enjoys the visit, but a return trip is highly unlikely.
To Rome with Love tells its several tales of romantic entanglements and tribulations in four separate vignettes, all dealing with surreal flights of fancy, the illusion of love and the disillusion of relationships, and the inability to escape our unwanted desires. For that reason, I decided to grade each episode individually, resulting in a final average:
Story 1: Jesse Eisenberg is Jack, a happily engaged young man who meets his fiancée's neurotic best friend, Monica ( Ellen Page ). Of course, the more time Jack invests with Monica, the more intrigued he becomes. Enters Alec Baldwin as John, an architect who may or may not be a figment of Jack's imagination. John may be is an older version of Jack, but he mainly serves the story as its narrative conscience, bantering witty asides, as he tries to avert this liaison with disastrous results.
Comment: By far, the best of the lot, although Baldwin's character becomes an enigma throughout most of the film. This episode entertains with its clever plotting and funny conversations. Perhaps if this small slice of Little Italiana were expanded and the script slightly revamped, this vignette could have made a more interesting film on its own. GRADE: B
Story 2 : A newlywed couple, Milly and Antonio ( Alessandro Tiberi and Allesandra Mastronardi ) are honeymooning in Rome. Both lovers are momentarily separated and later charmed and seduced by Millie's favorite actor ( a miscast Altonio Albanese ), and in Antonio's case, a prostitute with, ( what else? ) a heart of gold named Anna ( Penelope Cruz ). Complications ensue with disastrous results.
Comment: Partly successful, this portion uses a convoluted plot structure to interweave its stories about the two separated lovers. Cruz and Tiberi have a nice chemistry and the dialog here is smart. Unfortunately, the story derails as it detours the characters into sit- com situations that have no real payoff. GRADE: B-
Story 3: Woody Allen is Jerry, an opera director who is married to the sardonic Phyllis ( Judy Davis ). This husband and wife team have come to Italy to visit their daughter, Hayley ( Alison Pill ) who is about to marry a handsome Italian named Michelangelo ( Flavio Parenti ). While Jerry mulls over his soon-to-be son-in-law with the usual one-liners and deprecating humor that is Allen's trademark, he meets Michelangelo's father, Giancarlo ( Fabio Armiliato ) a common man, and overhears him singing in an uncommonly melodious voice. Jerry is completely enamored of this vocal gift and wants to arrange for an operatic debut. One small glitch: that voice only projects in the shower. Jerry tries to find a solution to this problem with disastrous results.
Comment: A one joke premise that runs aground very quickly. Silly and inane, the characters never amount to anything remotely real and the premise is a bore. Only Judy Davis survives in this tedious story. GRADE: C
Story 4 : Roberto Benigni plays Leopoldo, a comic ordinary everyman who suddenly finds fame and fortune. He tries to cope with the world of celebrity worship since he no longer has any private moments for himself. Oh the price of fame! Hounded by paparazzi and fans, Leopoldo longs for the simple life as he tries to elude all of its fancy trappings and temptations with disastrous results.
Comment: Quite disappointing, easily the runt of the pack. Allen ponders the concept of fame and creates a surreal and sanctimonious look at celebrities and their pampered lifestyle, concluding, not surprisingly, that an idol's life is not that idyllic. Most of the slapstick and dialog falls flat in its heavy-handed predictability. GRADE: C-
Photographed by Darius Khondji, the film has an ugly dingy yellowed tint to many of its scenes which does little to enhance this beautiful city's allure. The non-editing by Alisa Lepseiter is clunky and quite choppy. None of the scenes even try to flow with one another, creating an abrupt and jarring effect.
Overall, To Rome with Love never gels as one solid film, either in its script or in its filmmaking. GRADE AVERAGE: C+
Visit my blog at: www.dearmoviegoer.com
ANY COMMENTS: Please contact me at: jadepietro@rcn.com to add comments.