Only apparently superficial

Rating: 8/10 (23 September 2012)

Woody Allen is a movie director who has a deeply knowledge of modern urban life (his more significant films take place in New York, London, Paris, Barcelona and now Rome) in its various aspects mainly those concerned with human relations namely in what refers to love and the several ways it reveals itself including sex. His movies are only apparently superficial. Behind the good humour with which they are made we often find also drama and frustration. And romanticism is almost always present though not in a very patent image. Besides being charming in terms of images of beautiful Rome, this movie tells us several crossed stories that have to do with the idiosyncrasies of present society mainly one that the story shows admirably: the illusion of the social and with media coverage fame that has its example in the office clerk who becomes suddenly famous without knowing why and with all the inherent public homages and reverences and also the undertaker who sings well opera but only in the shower. These are obviously social caricatures but well presented and performed. On the other hand we have the love relations in the three young couples with the interference of a third party in two cases (the seductive pseudo-intellectual girl in one of them and the fine hotel whore and the famous movie actor in the other). This gives way to a lot of excellent gags and funny situations but which have to do with real sentiments and their realistic evolutions sometimes unexpected but acceptable in terms of psychological reactions. All this i. e. images, scenes, stories, the performers's work and the gags, everything treated, related and shown with great skill make this movie one of the best in the current year