Probably shouldn’t be going there on my honeymoon, but, well, it’s relevant and our trip is winding down, so why not?
I’m on the tail end of a nine-day trip to Rome, typing this out from an apartment on Via dei Pettinari, listening to the sounds of joy and inebriation from those walking east across the nearby Ponte Sisto and a night of drinks across the Tiber in the Trastevere. Posters and full-bus adverts for Woody Allen’s “To Rome with Love” (née “Nero Fiddled”/”The Bop Decameron”) have been announcing the film’s imminent April arrival all over the city and the trailer dropped today, so I thought I’d give it a look and “work” for a bit.
Allen cranks out a film per year. The law of averages dictates that most of them will stink, and indeed, as of late, most of them do. For every “Midnight in Paris” (which held an impressive stay on the circuit last year and yielded a Best Original Screenplay Oscar for the writer/director), we’re due a “Scoop” here, a “You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger” there, etc. I have heard from only one person who has seen “To Rome with Love,” and from what I gather, it’s back to the junk pile. And the trailer sure does suggest some scattered silliness with little to stimulate the mind.
Of course, that’s just me. Maybe it’ll be charming enough. It’s weird to me that in a film featuring folks like Jesse Eisenberg, Alec Baldwin, Judy Davis, Ellen Page, etc., the actor I’m most interested to see chew on this material is Roberto Benigni. Penelope Cruz looks typically on fire, but overall, this is just an awkward mish-mash that doesn’t at all indicate top-form Allen.
And the thing about Page exuding sex appeal or whatever. That’s a joke, right?
Anyway, check out the trailer below, courtesy of Yahoo! Movies. It’s nifty seeing all the stuff I’ve been surrounded by for over a week. I’ll be back in the full swing of things soon enough, but for now, back to Roma.
(What do you think of the trailer for “To Rome with Love?” Rate it above!)
For year-round entertainment news and awards season commentary follow @kristapley on Twitter.
Sign up for Instant Alerts from In Contention!