Woody Allen's latest film, Going to Rome with Love, doesn't bring any particular excitement and surprises, but it offers a kind of joy that he seems to be able to generate in need. The New Yorker, who claims to have been upset after a night away from home, is his fourth recent film in the European capital that treats Rome like an attracted tourist. He tells four different stories that are interlaced but not intertwined, and three of them are interesting and fascinating.
Much of their appeal came from the cast, as Allen was clearly capable of convincing any actor to come and work with him for a week or two. I've heard that using stars allows directors to write a 10-page script because we think we already know a lot about the character. This helps Alan easily skip in his stories, which have the depth of a landscape play.
Of the "Love Roma" story, the best story is that of Allen herself, as a self-doubting opera director, who goes to Rome with his wife (Judy Davis, in her fifth film with Woody). They met their daughter (alison pill) in Rome and planned to get married. He was not very happy with his fiancé, Flavio parenti, and seemed to have a wrong name for him. But when he heard the young man's father (the real opera tenor fabio armiliato) singing in the shower, he heard a great tenor.
His future in-laws were a mortician. Jerry pleaded to record his recording on the demo tape. It doesn't work. The man seemed to be able to sing only in the shower. It's a kind of "zany shuffle" that eschews the traditional setup.
In another story, Greta Gerwig plays Jack, an architect in Rome, and his girlfriend, Jesse Eisenberg. When her friend Monica (Ellen Peggy) comes to visit Rome, Sally unwisely asks her to move in because Jack has no other woman's eyes. This is untrue because Monica looks so monotonous that she rolls herself into a woman who seduces women.
Alex Baldwin cooperates in a rather contradictory way in this paragraph. He was able to concretize in his will, and he eagerly warned Jack against Monica and tried to stop the flippant carelessness of a young man. The character needed a kind of magic realism, and Allen was more than willing to make himself.
Another episode: Antonio and Alessandra Mastronardi (Alessandra Mastronardi and Milly) are newlyweds and his family can meet her. But one day, they are separated, and she clashes with her favorite movie star (Antonio Abbotn), who becomes an innocent recipient of a prostitute (penelope cruz) who is given as a gift. His relatives found themselves in a compromise situation, and he desperately wanted to make her his wife.
The fourth story begins with some people who are famous for their fame. Roberto Benigni plays a victim of overnight fame, full of paparazzi, unable to find any escape or peace, and then suddenly becomes blurred again. As a premise, it was outdated, Alan never found a way to pay it back, and Benigni soon grew tired of it.
"Going to Rome with love" is not woody Allen's greatness. It's a guy who's done a feature every year since 1969 and will complain if they're not all great Woody, if they're just a good Woody. His previous film Midnight in Paris was magical. Some critics said he was unfriendly for his age, which made me feel very rude. So he's 76. Good for him. Is he still skilled in timing? Is he still interesting? Aren't we happy to have another photo?