To Rome With Love

Woody Allen experienced a major career revival with last year's Midnight In Paris, but can he maintain it?

No. Instead, Woody is channeling Garry Marshall as To Rome With Love comes off like some surrealist version of Valentine's Day or New Year's Eve. Woody presents several different stories, supposedly about love, but not really all of them are like that, which is the first indication To Rome With Love isn't going to work out.

Alec Baldwin is John - a successful architect visiting Rome and remembering all of his youthful adventures in the magical city until he runs into a young architect, Jack (Jesse Eisenberg), who needs some guidance as he tries to deal with his girlfriend, Sally (Greta Gerwig) and her visiting pal, Monica (Ellen Page).

Woody Allen stars as Jerry - a retired music impresario traveling to Rome to meet his daughter's, Hayley (Alison Pill), new fiancée, Michelangelo (Flavio Parenti). However, he gets distracted by a new opportunity.

And then there are several other stories that just don't matter.

Sadly, To Rome With Love as the follow up to Midnight in Paris reminds me of a great baseball player who is in his declining years, has one, last amazing year making everyone think he has beat Father Time, only to revert to the decline next season.

To Rome With Love is a disjointed, strange and often inexplicable movie. It has its funny moments, especially as Woody Allen as an actor launches into that borscht belt shtick that he is so good at, but the movie is an absurdist mess without much meaning and clarity.

You kind of think you know what is happening with John and Jack, but never really get a clear indication.

There is a whole story about Roberto Begnini as a normal, everyday guy who becomes super famous overnight, but is this story about the dangers of fame just a tired retread of something you have seen before? Sure, it is, which is why it's just not as funny as it needs to be.

Jerry's wild new business venture has some funny moments, but is too crazy to be taken seriously at all.

This is the movie where one of my fellow critics stumbled in late, almost sat on me, and fell into the seat next to me wreaking of booze the entire night. Maybe I would have liked the movie better if I was drunk.

To Rome With Love is rated R for some sexual references.