To Rome With Love
2012
**
Director: Woody Allen
Cast: Antonio Albanese, Woody Allen, Alec Baldwin, Roberto Benigni, Penélope Cruz, Judy Davis, Jesse Eisenberg, Greta Gerwig, Alessandra Mastronardi, Ellen Page, Alison Pill, Riccardo Scamarcio
After the inspired Midnight in Paris, Woody Allen returns to his poor recent form in these four forgettable vignettes set in Rome. In the first one, a retired opera director discovers a talent from an unexpected place. In the second one, young newlyweds from the countryside lose their innocence in the big city. In the third one, a boring bureaucrat becomes an overnight celebrity for no reason. In the last one, a middle-aged architect becomes a young student's voice of conscience. The film intercuts between the stories, but there is no overlap; the action doesn't even take place in the same time-frame. There doesn't appear to be a common theme either, although some of the parts deal with the pros and cons of fame. Apart from a few funny oneliners and several likeable performances, this overlong concoction is by turns predictable, pointless, uneventful, repetitive, and baffling.
