Top positive review
4.0 out of 5 starsWe try to hire as many loco people as possible.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 6 April 2020
Ok, that's a misquote, the word was local, but there's no denying the joyous madness that is To Rome With Love (2012). This is a film where everyone arriving in the city gets a little crazed, and given what you probably sense about Rome, whether you've ever been there or not, seems hardly surprising.
What is surprising is how the postcard title of the movie, originally entitled The Bop Decameron, totally belies the ludicrous hilarity of this movie. This is way past Midnight in Paris's nocturnal time travelling, or the summer flings of Vicky Cristina Barcelona. This is kind of like both those movies combined, and the repeated use of Woody's term 'Ozymandias Melancholia' drags us back to his masterful Stardust Memories (1980), with which this film also has themes in common.
But be careful, for like Midnight...' it doesn't start promisingly, with the traffic cop introducing the characters, none of whom prove very endearing in the first ten minutes. My advice, stick with it, because To Rome With Love turns into quite the carnival, with multiple storylines and time zones and existential metamorphoses. I'd also say there are multiple Woodys in this movie, not just Woody himself, but Jesse's character, the young husband, Pisanello the shmuck, all are Woody clown characters.
I'm not gonna tell you anymore, except to say it's romantic, surreal, full of homages to Italian cinema and Woody's own oeuvre, and in the best possible way, gorgeous to look at. Truly. And now we're in a time period of international viral lockdown, what better time to pick up a movie loosely inspired by Bocaccio's Decameron, eh?!
Very funny and nutty. Loved it.
