Woody fiddles while Rome fails to spark.

Rating: 5/10 (9 August 2012)

Woody Allen's European tour continues, stopping this time in Rome to tell a quartet of unconnected stories that run from the absurd to listless. It's mishmash Allen in search of Fellini and it gets lost in translation fast.
Working four story lines Rome opens swiftly as Allen inter-cuts the pieces but once established they all begin to bog down in vapid dialog, the pace loses energy and the payoff on all four vignettes found to be lacking. It's like channel surfing four mundane TV comedies incapable of holding your attention beyond five minutes.
The cast has the usual big names to put in twenty minutes each with Penelope Cruz back to play her hot, high wind Mediterranean bombshell, Alec Baldwin whispering and doing the same things he does in commercials, a cadaverous Judy Davis acting and looking uncomfortable in her own skin, Roberto Benigni doing Roberto Benigni from two decades back and Allen himself showing hints of dementia.
Allen's writing is both capricious and lame as he makes observations about the price of fame, the paparazzi, youthful infatuation and singing in the shower with a heavy hand. There's plenty of Fellini homage (Amacord, La Dolce Vita) going so far as to lift the entire plot from The White Sheik for one of the story lines. Little surprise it is the best of the segments but that's not saying much for this Rome ruin.