To Rome with Love Takes Place among Allen's Worst

Rating: 3/10 (17 January 2013)

Woody Allen films are among my favorites, but he mailed in To Rome with Love. Ever since Match Point, the pattern has been hit, miss, better -- hit, miss, better. Sing a long with me now, Match Point (hit), Scoop (miss), Cassandra's Dream (better), Vicky Cristina Barcelona (hit), Whatever Works (miss), You'll Meet a Tall Dark Stranger (better), Midnight in Paris (hit), To Rome with Love (miss) ... and I'm guessing Blue Jamine will be on par with the better fare. Even going back from Match Point, Melinda and Melinda was a better, and Anything Else a miss. My scheme breaks down with the film prior to Anything Else, which was also a miss (Hollywood Ending).
This is one of Allen's worst films. While I found parts of the vignette in which Allen placed himself rather amusing, there was nothing even remotely delightful or insightful about the other three. I'm still trying to figure out whether Alec Baldwin's character is a muse, an older version of Eisenberg, or some new kind of psychopomp invented by Allen. The poetic license / liberty-taking with film convention wouldn't have mattered at all had the vignette not fallen flat. The characters are all so one-dimensional and undeveloped to be a source of humor for the film, so Allen relies on situation for comedy and here we find him an average sit-com writer.
It's as if Allen was going through the motions in checking off the last leg of a European tour before heading back to the states for Blue Jasmine. Don't we all find that our last day of a vacation, despite our best efforts to make it the best, end up being tired and meandering? The same principle applies here.
To Rom with Love is not as soul-deadening as Broadway Danny Rose, as tiresome as Zelig, as solipsistic as Stardust Memories, or as flat as Hollywood Ending, but I would rank it among his worst.