dierregi The four unrelated plots that compose this mess of a movie focus on classic Allen's themes he tackled better many times before.The plot featuring Benigni is a compressed version of "Celebrity", the Allen movie about the absurdity of contemporary fame-worshipping. Benigni is a most overrated actor/director with a very limited range. His scenes are painful to watch.The story featuring Eisenberg, Gerwig and Page is the standard Allen's fodder of a young man falling for a neurotic/pretentious/unreliable female, in the past the classic Keaton's role. In "Anything Else" Christina Ricci played the Page role. This story is also annoying and the dialogues bad and repetitive. Comments fly around about how sexy and irresistible the Page character is supposed to be, even if she does not strike me as such...A third story features a young Italian couple acting as if they lived in the 50s. They both are ludicrous but manage to cuckold each other given the first chance. The "wise" hooker played by Cruz is straight out of "Deconstructing Harry".The fourth plot was for me the most unbearable, featuring Allen himself at his most Allenish. Stammering, afraid of death and involved in a stupid plan (see "Small Time Crooks" and many others), Allen manages to concurrently insult Italian families and operas.Even the soundtrack is atrocious, with some corny Italian tunes from the 50s. The only saving grace is the photography. However, the real Rome is a mess of ugly buildings and traffic, not the golden collection of monuments showed in the movie…Really an awful mess that should be voted in the negative.... even without mentioning the overbearing product-placement.

phoenix 2 You would expect more from an Allen movie, but in this case, it fails completely to even be funny. Many stories are presented, with the only thing in common that they are taking place in Rome. Okay, the scenes of the city are beautiful, but the movie is a madness, with no real story, and, in the end, no real purpose. I mean, was it about the city? broken relationships? misunderstandings? paranoia? No clue. The story about the opera and the shower was kind of funny, I guess, and the one with the newlyweds cute and probably the most interesting story in the film. Now, the one with the uni students had some depth in it, and the one with the unexpected fame was rhetorical, if not crazy. But still, they didn't mingle well with each other. So 3 out of 10.

Python Hyena To Rome With Love (2012): Dir: Woody Allen / Cast: Woody Allen, Roberto Benigni, Alec Baldwin, Penelope Cruz, Jesse Eisenberg: Romantic comedy about the idea of Rome as a romantic symbol when in fact it contains every bit as many problems as any other place. Woody Allen and Judy Davis play a married couple flying to Rome to meet their daughter's fiancé. Their daughter is a journalist while her fiancé's father is a mortician whom Allen learns has a talent for singing opera. The problem is that this talent is restricted to the shower. This plays out as one of the great hilarious payoffs when Allen presents the most awkward stage plays. Roberto Benigni plays an ordinary guy who is suddenly hounded by paparazzi who ask him the most absurd details into his life. It is Allen's humorous attack on fame and its illusions. Alec Baldwin seems to be everywhere when it comes to coaching a young heart throb who is about to cheat on his girlfriend with her best friend, an aspiring actress who has just arrived in town. Penelope Cruz plays a prostitute who ends up in the wrong hotel room and mistaken as the fiancé of someone who is set to meet relatives. His real fiancé is lost within the city and loses her cell phone, but she becomes the target of romance by a famous actor and this leads to the most hysterical burglary attempt ever conspired. Jesse Eisenberg seems to be observing it all, hanging out with Baldwin enlightening each other. This is Woody Allen at his best as he presents witty dialogue, comic encounters at their most inspiring, and a view of Rome that paints a far different picture than reputed. Score: 10 / 10

Desertman84 To Rome With Love is a film of Woody Allen that tells a story of four separate vignettes such as: a clerk who wakes up to himself a celebrity; an architect who takes a trip back to the street wherein he lived as a student;a young couple on their honeymoon; and an Italian funeral director who possesses a singing ability that captures his soon to be in-law who happens to be an American opera director.The ensemble cast of the movie includes Woody Allen himself together with Alec Baldwin,Roberto Benigni,Penélope Cruz,Judy Davis and Jesse Eisenberg.Compared to other Woody Allen films like for example Annie Hall,this is definitely will be considered a minor one due to underdeveloped characters and plot lines.Added to that,many unrealistic events happen that is way beyond belief and it won't be enough to generate the interest of the viewers even though the stories happen in the streets of Rome and it had a strong cast in it.Finally,the plot lines also fail to become one coherent story telling that a viewer may find it somewhat boring and uninteresting at some parts of the movie.