Amateurish. That’s To Rome with Love (Woody Allen, 2012)—in one (obvious) good sense as well as several bad ones. I so much wanted to like this, and did like coupla things: Alec Baldwin hanging around, for example, like Humphrey Bogart in Play It Again Sam. But I got sick of his character, and his former good looks, after a few incursions.
Long list of things I didn’t like: book-ending the film with two non-actors: both those scenes are cringe-making (and amateurish, in both senses). Woody Allen’s (non-)acting; the lines he gave himself, and then didn’t just simply speak, but added his perpetual ‘you know’s—his phoney ad-libbing. He’s still just the same stand-up comedian he was at the beginning—except that his timing has slowed waaay down. He’s an amateur actor.
There are four short films here, disguised as a feature by simply cutting them randomly one into another: that’s another negative, as it’s dishonest. Another: Roberto Benigni’s ott one-dimensional character.
And so on. Woody Allen’s annual films are an institution, and everyone over 30 will go and see them like they go to the family Xmas dinner: they know what to expect, and only some of it will be good.
To Rome with Love (Woody Allen, 2012)
reviews | Garry Gillard | New: 1 March, 2017 | Now: 1 March, 2017