Very good, actually!

Rating: 8/10 (11 July 2012)

Okay, so it doesn't quite have the magic of last year's "Midnight in Paris". So it isn't the equal of some of Allen's 'great works' like "Annie Hall" or "Hannah and her Sisters". Still I can say that I was thoroughly entertained by "To Rome with Love". It may not be a masterpiece, but nevertheless I found it witty, charming, and fun. I liked it
I liked it a lot.
The film is blessed with a marvelous cast. Nearly everyone gets a chance to shine, breathing life into an outrageous assortment of characters. Penelope Cruz makes the screen sizzle as a prostitute with a saucy and slyly sardonic attitude. Alessandro Tiberi and Alessandra Mastronardi are radiant as newlyweds each faced with their own respective crises. They are amusing in their skittishness and flightiness, which is brought out to comic effect when they are both put into absurd situations. But through it all their characters retain a human quality; you can sympathize with their feelings of indecision, confusion, uncertainty and excitement. In the end, I found myself not only amused but touched by their quirky little love story.
Jesse Eisenberg is similarly endearing as an unworldly young architect who falls for his girlfriend's friend Monica, who is played by Ellen Page. Page, in the midst of several standout performances, stands out. It is a pleasure to watch her mastery of the character, how smoothly she seems to go from a frumpy, down-on-her-luck actress to an enticing object of allure. With her delicate frame, some may not think Ellen Page suited for the role of a femme fatale. They should reserve judgment. She plays her part to perfection, holding the viewer in her thrall just as she holds Eisenberg's character – although the viewer can sense from the get-go the shallowness and phoniness of her façade. Her performance may be the very best in the film.
Alec Baldwin serves as a guide for Eisenberg's character. He's not fooled by Monica's bulls**t for a minute; he's known people like her before. As such, he gets more great lines than I could count – stingingly insightful and caustic quips in which he pegs Monica for exactly what she is. Baldwin's grimly knowing delivery of these remarks is almost as brilliant as the dialogue itself.
Woody Allen himself is great in his usual 'Woody Allen persona', this time as a dweeby father who comes with his psychiatrist wife (Judy Davis) to Rome to meet his daughter's fiancée. The witty repartee between Allen and Davis is classic Woody Allen stuff, and, in my humble opinion, as funny as ever. As the young couple, Alison Pill and Flavio Parenti don't have *that* much to do, but manage to make fine impressions anyway. Taking center stage in this portion of the film is the fiancée's father, played with amiableness and dignity by Fabio Armiliato. Of course, that gentle dignity ends up overturned in a hilarious manner. He's got a talent, you see, a talent Allen's character dearly wishes to exploit. But there are problems. Funny problems.
The weakest part of the film to me is the one with Roberto Benigni, who plays an average working man with a home and family who wakes up one morning to discover he is inexplicably famous. It's not bad necessarily, but somewhat less enjoyable and engaging when compared to other portions of the film. Still, Benigni, like everybody else in the film, doesn't give a bad performance.
Woody Allen's "To Rome with Love" has a screenplay that is often intelligent and almost always fun, and boasts a spectacular ensemble cast. By the closing credits I'd had many a good laugh and become invested in the film's wide variety of characters. In my opinion, it deserves more than its current rating of 6.4 on IMDb.