Written and directed by Woody Allen, To Rome With Love tells four stories of romance and opportunity. However, this movie is far from a romance as it can get.

While spending the summer in Rome, Hayley (Alison Pill) meets Michelangelo
(Flavio Parenti) and immediately falls in love. They become engaged and plan to be married, but first have to get through Hayley’s parents coming for a visit.

Jack (Jesse Eisenberg) is an architect student studying in Rome. A walk one day leads him to meet a famous architect, John (Alec Baldwin), who he invites back to his apartment to meet his girlfriend, Sally (Greta Gerwig). It’s then that Sally informs Jack that her friend Monica (Ellen Page) is coming for a visit. When Sally tells Jack to try not to fall in love with Monica he doesn’t think it’ll be a problem, but when he meets the quirky, sexy friend, he knows he’s in trouble.

Antonio (Alessandro Tiberi) and Milly (Alessandra Mastronardi) are newlyweds visiting Rome for a job opportunity. But when Milly gets lost trying to find a hair stylist and a hooker shows up to their hotel room on accident and is caught with Antonio by his aunt and uncle, Antonio has to think fast and claim she is his wife.

Leopoldo (Roberto Benigni) is an ordinary man, which is why he is highly surprised when he becomes the most interesting man in Rome. Followed by TV cameras and paparazzi, Leopoldo quickly becomes annoyed with the famous life. But what happens when it’s suddenly all taken away?

To Rome with Love was funny and entertaining. Each story brings an opportunity for the viewer to relate no matter how absurd they are. One thing I liked about this is that half of it was in Italian with English subtitles. This helped bring the reality of the movie out, which I loved. The one problem I had with it was that 3 of the stories seemed to take a few weeks to unfold, while one was supposed to take place within a day. This kind of made it unbalanced, but really didn’t distract too much from the overall story.

In my opinion Woody Allen is a genius and should be applauded for this film, even if it was only in theaters as a limited release.

Grade: A