To Rome with a Woody

To Rome with Love, Woody Allen's newest European romp following his hit and very entertaining Midnight in Paris, was an enjoyable visit through different love stories in the Eternal City. A stacked cast of Alec Baldwin, Jesse Eisenberg, Greta Gerwig, Ellen Page, Woody, Penelope Cruz, and Roberto Benigni.

The love stories don't take a Love, Actually twist and end up being intertwined, yet each does showcase a different dilemma or aspect of love relationships. There's the newlywed couple, the old couple, the newly engaged couple, and a prostitute (guess who plays that role).

The audience make-up was noticeably older, especially coming from a showing of Spiderman directly before it. I couldn't help but think of the arguments made about the demographics of movies the article from Salon covered. It basically discusses the arguments that the younger demographic isn't seeing movies as much because so many are coming out but that makes the movie companies increase prices which forces the younger audiences away even more. They point to movies that are geared toward adults as being profitable, just as long as they're good and new enough to make adults go to the theaters to see them. Paris and Rome both fit that latter description.

The scenery of Rome and the many conversations spoken completely in Italian do add a lovely feel to the film and makes you long to visit the city. If you like Woody Allen type films and want to try a movie that isn't a sequel or remake, check out To Rome with Love.