“To Rome with Love” – it’s more like than love [MOVIE REVIEW]
Alessandro Tiberi as Antonio, Roberto Della Casa as Uncle Paolo and Penélope Cruz as AnnaPhoto by Philippe Antonello (c) Gravier Productions, Inc., Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics In an homage to Italian comedies of the 50s and 60s by Nanni Loy, Vittorio de Sica and Federico Fellini (I thought of Rossellini as well, but he was never a lot of laughs), Woody Allen has set up “To Rome with Love” in a somewhat episodic framework. Unlike the Italians who loved the episodic format, both in comedy and drama, in which three or four separate short films, often with the same actors playing different characters, would be combined within a thematic framework (love, war, adultery, etc.), here Allen has created different storylines, each with its own set of characters and none of which intersect. Clearly enamored of Rome, and who wouldn’t be with its magnificent ruins, fountains and colorful narrow streets, he tries to use the city as a character in the film. It’s a great idea that required more thought because, unlike “Midnight in Paris,” a film that could only have been shot in Paris and whose story intersected so beautifully with the city, “To Rome with Love” plays more like a travelogue…
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