A disappointment from Woody Allen

Rating: 5/10 (26 September 2012)

The opening sequence of this film filled me with hope....Rome, probably my favorite city in the world, seen through the awestruck eyes of Woody Allen....unfortunately, until the equally magnificent closing scene, he doesn't really make Rome an integral part of his stories....of course there are a few token references to the Collosseum and the Vatican, but also a few too many interior shots. Woody himself, at age 77, is still the funniest performer in the film, AND of course he gives himself most of the best lines as well ("He does it for pleasure, not for money" - "Well, there is a lot of pleasure IN money"!). But while his segment is pretty funny, it's also basically one-joke. The segment with the Italian couple moving to the big city begins well and the couple is appealing, but it goes astray when it turns into a story of double infidelity; this could have been handled either as an all-out farce or as a serious drama, but Allen seems, rather disagreeably, to imply that the whole incident was beneficial to the couple! Nevertheless, this segment includes the three loveliest women in the film, the adorable up-and-coming Alessandra Mastronardi, the getting-hotter-every-year Penelope Cruz, and a cameo by the ageless Ornella Muti! (she should have had a bigger part). The segment with the American couple who find their relationship tested by the arrival of the girl's uninhibited best female friend feels mostly artificial and unconvincing - perhaps because Ellen Page never quite succeeds in looking like a strong enough temptation for Jesse Eisenberg to abandon Gret Gerwig. As for the Roberto Benigni segment, it's pointless, unfunny and repetitive. When I saw "Il Mostro" at the theater in the mid-1990s, the audience was roaring with laughter; during 90% of Benigni's scenes in "To Rome With Love" the audience was dead quiet. Overall, a lightweight disappointment from Woody, though not without moments of pleasure for his fans. ** out of 4.