She Deviant || To Rome with Love: Review
I took some time over the weekend to watch a movie and came across To Rome with Love via DVD. I judged a book by its cover; saw the list of actors and was quickly convinced that I should watch it. Now did I love it? Let me dig a tad deeper on how I felt….
Written and directed by the quirky Woody Allen, To Rome with Love took place in (you guessed it) Rome. The movie tells the stories of 4 groups of tourists and residents of Rome. We meet with Hayley who is visiting Rome, played by Alison Pill, and Michelangelo, played by Flavio Parenti. So basically we have a tourist that meets an Italian and well, the rest is history. A love blossoms and at some point end up engaged (isn’t real love like this?). Hayley’s parents Jerry (Woody Allen), a retired opera director, and Phyllis (Judy Davis) visit Rome to meet their future in-laws. They meet Michelangelo’s parents and Jerry is quickly enthralled with Giancarlo’s (Fabio Armiliato) singing voice, Michelangelo’s father. He wants to make him a big star, while Phyllis believes he’s attempt to put Giancarlo in the limelight is a call for help desire to get out of retirement.
Then we meet John, played by Alec Baldwin, who is visiting Rome after leaving there several years back. He meets with Jack, an American architect student played by Jesse Eisenberg, who lives in the same town John once did. John decides to walk with Jack into town and somehow the story has a bit of a twist and it appears as if Jack is reliving John’s life or John is his subconscious personified (still confused about that). Jack has a girlfriend he lives with but she has a friend named Monica, played by Ellen Page, who he quickly becomes fascinated and in love with her. Monica is a bit of a flake and eventually skips town for a acting opportunity.
You are also introduced to Milly (Alessandra Mastronardi) and Antonio (Alessandro Tiberi) who are newleyweds in Rome to impress Antonio’s family in hopes for a new job. He meets a prostitute, played by Penélope Cruz, and she meets a famous actor and the two become tangled in uncompromising situations when they are separated.
We also meet Leopoldo played by Roberto Benigni, who is a middle class citizen going to and from work with nothing special about him. He then wakes up one day as a famous person. Everyone knows him and wants to know everything about him and he becomes distraught with the idea of not having privacy or a normal life. He eventually becomes the nobody he desired, to only wish he could be desired yet again.
The story had its confusing moments with 4 different point of views of people in Rome. Though it showcased several actors, they didn’t intertwine with one another. I enjoyed the movie, but I don’t tend to like the movies that have small stories like this. I’m a sucker for foreign films though and this was a partially foreign, given that a lot of Italian was spoken. I am used to watching movies with subtitles, so I didn’t feel that it was any extra work. Keep that in mind when you are thinking about watching this romantic comedy. It’s worth the watch. Enjoy!
To Rome With Love is available NOW from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
