To Rome With Love - Woody Allen dashes off a cinematic postcard from the Eternal City

Woody Allen has been dispatching cinematic postcards from European cities for much of the past decade and following missives from London, Barcelona and Paris, he’s now alighted in the Italian capital for To Rome with Love.

It’s another multi-stranded comedy following the romantic adventures, marital mishaps and domestic follies of a mix of visitors and locals. Allen dips in and out of the separate storylines but never attempts to tie them together or give them any kind of thematic unity.

In one story, Alec Baldwin’s successful architect John vicariously relives his youthful student days in Rome as he observes Jesse Eisenberg’s budding young architect caught between his dependable girlfriend (Greta Gerwig) and her seductive but flaky best friend (Ellen Page).

In another, retired music producer Jerry (played by Allen himself) visits the city with his psychiatrist wife (Judy Davis) to meet their daughter’s fiancé and discovers that his future son-in-law’s undertaker father Giancarlo has a remarkable singing voice. But how can he take advantage of his find - and revive his former opera-directing career - when Giancarlo (played by real-life tenor Fabio Armiliato) can only sing in the shower?

To Rome With Love - Alessandro Tiberi & Penelope Cruz

Elsewhere, in a satire on instant celebrity, Roberto Benigni’s dull family man wakes up one morning to find himself inexplicably famous, courted for his opinions by reporters, pestered by paparazzi and lauded on TV. And in the final strand, provincial newlyweds Antonio (Alessandro Tiberi) and Milly (Alessandra Mastronardi) enjoy separate erotic encounters in the Eternal City - he with call girl Penelope Cruz and she with an Italian movie star (Antonio Albanese).

All the episodes are patchy, some outstay their welcome (notably Benigni’s) and even the best (Eisenberg’s) fall short of the comic alchemy achieved by Vicky Cristina Barcelona and Midnight in Paris, but when the chemistry of script and cast comes off then the film is a delight - and the funniest bits made me laugh louder and longer than any other film this year.

On general release from Friday  14th September.

Jason Best

A film critic for over 25 years, Jason admits the job can occasionally be glamorous – sitting on a film festival jury in Portugal; hanging out with Baz Luhrmann at the Chateau Marmont; chatting with Sigourney Weaver about The Archers – but he mostly spends his time in darkened rooms watching films. He’s also written theatre and opera reviews, two guide books on Rome, and competed in a race for Yachting World, whose great wheeze it was to send a seasick film critic to write about his time on the ocean waves. But Jason is happiest on dry land with a classic screwball comedy or Hitchcock thriller.