To Rome with Love (2012)

To Rome with Love: Directed by Woody Allen. With Pierluigi Marchionne, Flavio Parenti, Alison Pill, Alessandro Tiberi. The lives of some visitors and residents of Rome and the romances, adventures and predicaments they get into.

“u0026quot;To Rome with Loveu0026quot; is a fantasy film; a comedy about people living out their fantasies. The great thing about it is that itu0026#39;s subtle enough that you donu0026#39;t recognize the fantasy element in all of the relationships until later on in the film. The obvious one is when native Roman, Leopoldo Pisanello (Roberto Benigni), becomes a celebrity over night. u0026quot;Itu0026#39;s better to be a celebrity than an unknown.u0026quot; And as Benigni shows, way funnier too.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eItu0026#39;s the type of film where everybody gets to see themselves as famous, or supremely interesting, or a guiding angel, or married to a hooker, or the object of a movie staru0026#39;s affections, or on a romantic rendezvous with a thief, or having the ability to change the world with one simple idea. It will take you to wherever your heart desires. And then youu0026#39;ll realize why itu0026#39;s often advised to think with your brain rather than with your heart.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eHalf Italian and half English, we follow two relationships involving Romans and two relationships with Americans in Rome. A young, Italian, married couple get separated and the young man finds himself living out every other young manu0026#39;s fantasies while the young woman finds herself living out her own fantasies.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eHayley (Alison Pill), a New Yorker transplanted in Rome, falls in love and gets engaged to a successful Roman lawyer. Her parents (Woody Allen and Judy Davis) make the trek across the ocean to meet their in-laws. But Allenu0026#39;s obsession with death and equating retirement with death causes him to create a national disaster (or success story, depending on how you look at it).u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eJack (Jesse Eisenberg) is an American architect living in Rome with his girlfriend. First he meets his architecture idol, John (Alec Baldwin), who sees Jack as the younger version of himself. Or more accurately, Jack sees John as the older version of himself (the joke works better that way). Then Jack meets Monica (Ellen Page) who is his girlfriendu0026#39;s best friend and is the object of all menu0026#39;s fantasies.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003ePage also gets to play the role of the self-obsessed, pseudo-intellectual — commonly referred to as u0026quot;the pedantic oneu0026quot; in most Woody Allen movies. Other than Allen himself, Eisenberg and Baldwin play a sort of tag-team version of the self-deprecating, neurotic hero, although this time with a touch of confidence.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eConfidence is not to be confused with optimism because as funny as u0026quot;To Rome with Loveu0026quot; is, it also has Allenu0026#39;s usual undertone of pessimism. Death is going to come sooner than you would like, but not soon enough. And even if you do get to live out your heartu0026#39;s fantasies, they may not lead to everything that you hoped for. This film is the comedy version of death and negativity, and can provide you with the simple joys in life.”