To Rome with Love (Woody Allen, 2012)
B-http://nursingshorelines.com/2012/07/07/to-rome-with-love-woody-allen-2012/After spending much of the late 90s and early 00s pumping out a massive amount of crap (Anything Else, The Curse of the Jade Scorpion, Hollywood Ending, etc.), I think Woody Allen has been on a bit of a hot streak lately. Ignoring the abomination that is You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, all his work since 2004 has ranged from good (Melinda and Melinda, Scoop) to really good (Match Point, Whatever Works) to great (Midnight in Paris). So when I heard he was going back to the well to make another multiple-story film, I was worried. Fortunately, To Rome with Love is mostly solid Woody; Woody-lite, to be sure, but still quite fulfilling.
The film centers on four surreal stories which, despite being cut together so they’re all taking place simultaneously, never actually have anything to do with the others. In one, Alec Baldwin runs into a young man who strikingly resembles a younger version of himself. In another, Roberto Benigni, the most normal schmuck in Italy, finds himself famous for no apparent reason. We also have a pair of newlyweds who come to Rome and get separated, and finally an older couple (Allen and Judy Davis) to meet their daughter’s “communist” fiance.
I’ll start with the two stories that don’t work because CINECAST! do they not work. The first is Woody’s completely misguided attempt at making a statement about undeserved celebrity. While Benigni (who I actually found quite enjoyable here, surprising since I usually find him to be the equivalent to an earwig pushing into my brain) gives it all he can, the story is too flimsy and undercooked to work. The same goes for the story of the newlyweds, who get separated and end up in adultery-probably situations with a famous Italian movie star and a prostitute (Penelope Cruz). Again, the thing feels like it just didn’t have enough time in the oven, which is disappointing, though I can’t begrudge the 76 year-old Allen for trying to race the clock.
Fortunately, the two other stories were clearly given precedence (they each probably add up to about 30 minutes or so of a 102 minute film), making them altogether more interesting than the others. The first one, with Woody, Judy Davis and Allison Pill, is the funniest of the vignettes, due in no small part to Allen. Even at 76 years old, the man is still able to deliver rapid-fire witticisms with unbelievable ease. He also has fantastic chemistry with Davis, in her fifth Allen film, playing a more comedic version of her character in Husbands and Wives. The story is rather preposterous, involving opera, communism and showering, but again, it provides plenty of laughs to make up for it.
I want to spend quite a bit of time talking about the biggest chunk of the film, because it’s one that I was both spectacularly charmed and a bit disappointed in. Starring Ellen Page, Jesse Eisenberg, Alec Baldwin and Greta Gerwig, the story focuses on an architect who runs into a young man spending a year studying in Rome who may or may not be a younger version of himself. He spends an indeterminate time following him around as almost a ghostly conscience, trying to prevent his younger self from making the same stupid mistakes he did.
The film works beautifully; it feels like the best of Woody mixed with the breezy but deep conversations of an early 90s Rohmer piece. He deals in equal parts with young love, fake intellectualism and regret, never straying too far from the snappy dialogue that makes him such a brilliant filmmaker. And the entire cast is up to the challenge, particularly Page, whose portfolio of interesting roles continues to grow.
The reason I was slightly disappointed in this chunk of the film is nothing to do with the short itself. It’s beautifully done and is on par with anything great he’s done in the past fifteen years or so. However, it seems like a film that could have been so easily expanded upon with a few more months of work into a full feature, and maybe garnered Woody some of the same rave praise that he got last year for Midnight in Paris. It feels almost like he got half the script done, maybe got stuck for a bit, and rather than taking the time to expand on it and maybe NOT release a film this year, he thought up three easy, fluffy vignettes to fill out the rest of the running time rather than finish up on this one. Disappointing, to say the least, but still a great piece of filmmaking.
Overall, To Rome with Love is a bit of a mixed bag. Some of it works, some of it doesn’t. But don’t let anyone tell you this is bottom of the barrel Woody; he’s clearly working like someone who’s been recently reinvigorated by his art, something I can only hope extends into his 2013 film, which has him returning to the States.