When in Rome

Stop me if you have heard this one before (and, you have). Kristen Bell stars as Beth - a hot young blonde in New York City who works so hard, she doesn't take time for love. Suddenly, while preparing for the most important art show she will ever put on for her employer, Beth's younger sister, Joan (Alexis Dziena), announces she is getting married in Rome in a few days.

After several (comically?) embarrassing moments at the wedding and a quickly broken heart, Beth decides to wallow in her drunken sadness by wading into a famous fountain where the lovelorn make their wishes and toss in their coins hoping their dreams will come true. To "save" these fools from the pain and heartache of love, Beth decides to remove fives coins from the fountain.

In addition to committing some form of theft, according to legend, anyone who takes coins out of the fountain suddenly becomes the obsession of the coin tosser (from this day forward, I will follow Blake Lively around, and if a coin drops out of her pocket and into a puddle, I will be diving for that nickel). Now, Beth finds herself being pursued by hunky, dreamy Nick (Josh Duhamel), and four losers, the Artist (Will Arnett), the Magician (Jon Heder), the Model (Dax Shepard), and the Sausage King (Danny DeVito).

Will Beth be able to find true love and avoid the slightly insane ugly ducklings?

When in Rome is another example of a January movie with a completely preposterous premise. Worst of all, it's a movie where almost everything is overdone and goes too far.

Writers David Diamond and David Weissman give the audience a movie that is partly romantic and slightly funny, but mostly idiotic and predictable. Then, along with director Mark Steven Johnson, they make The Four Losers completely and utterly moronic beyond possibility as each one acts weirder than the next for no other reason than possibly to elicit a cheap laugh or two from the crowd because some people think comedy is laughing at people who are imbeciles.

Only Danny DeVito makes his loser character slightly endearing by adding some sweetness to The Sausage King that the rest of When in Rome could desperately use, but it feels like his efforts are negated by Bobby Moynihan (Nick's sidekick, Puck), who is trying too hard to be Jack Black (the annoying Jack Black from Year One, not the Jack Black with a glimmer of talent from Margot at the Wedding).

The rest of When in Rome is the typical slapstick comedy with a BIG COMPLICATION that threatens our beautiful heroes' happiness and possibility for true love (DeVito never had a chance). Of course, we also get an overimposing score to promote all of the songs that appear on the When in Rome soundtrack (if you were wondering whatever happened to Jason Mraz, the mystery has been solved and you can sleep well tonight without that haunting your thoughts).

Duhamel finds a couple moments to make us laugh and fills Nick with more compassion and tenderness than you might expect, while Bell is competent, but replaceable.

When in Rome is rated PG-13 for some suggestive content.