Four Independent Stories of Love, Adultery and Dreams in Rome

Rating: 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")