To Rome With Love - C

Rated R, 112 minutes

Rambling “To Rome With Love” has a few charming moments

Jesse Eisenberg and Greta Gerwig in "To Rome With Love"

“To Rome With Love” is Woody Allen’s latest comedy as he continues his European tour with a charming but thin, rambling story told over four vignettes.  It’s a disappointment after last year’s Oscar-winning “Midnight in Paris” and while it’s certainly not his best effort, even mediocre Woody is worth watching over say, anything Adam Sandler does.  Set in Rome, the film brings us into contact with a well-known American architect (Alec Baldwin) reliving his youth with a trio of young Americans (Jesse Eisenberg, Greta Gerwig and Ellen Page); an average middle-class Roman (Roberto Benigni) who suddenly finds himself Rome's biggest celebrity; a young provincial couple (Alessandro Tiberi and Alessandra Mastonardi) drawn into separate romantic encounters; and an American opera director (Allen) endeavoring to put a singing mortician on stage. Amusing yet slight, “To Rome With Love” is an eclectic comedy with various, unrelated storylines except they're all set in Rome. There are a handful of charming moments from the large cast, but it feels lazy and thin compared to some of Allen’s previous work, and it meanders too much in the second act. Allen, appearing onscreen for the first time in 6 years, is his typical lovable, nebbish self, though he’s upstaged by Judy Davis, who plays his psychiatrist wife who has some of the best lines. The mixture of fantasy, comedy and drama doesn’t work as smoothly as Allen has done it before (again, see last year’s much better “Midnight in Paris”), and one of the storylines (the one with Penelope Cruz) is largely nonessential  and uninspiring. The cast is a mixed bag too, but it's nice seeing Benigni again though Eisenberg in particular gets lost in his storyline, with Baldwin stealing much of his thunder. Even with a smattering of fun scenes, “To Rome With Love” goes on too long and doesn’t add up to much. The great city of Rome has acquired a great filmmaker in Allen, it just needs a better movie.