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To Rome With Love

TO ROME WITH LOVE written and directed by Woody Allen, with Ellen Page, Penélope Cruz and Roberto Benigni. 102 minutes. Some subtitles. A Mongrel release. Opens Friday (July 6). For venues and times, see Movies. Rating: NNN


Is Woody Allen the outrageous, sometimes ridiculous auteur who gave us Bananas or is he the mature talent that made Annie Hall, one of the greatest romantic comedies of all time?

To Rome With Love goes both ways, and the results are definitely mixed. In this meditation on the pleasures – and perils – of fantasy, the relationship-centred material is terrific and the silly stuff is, well, silly.

After abandoning the multiple storyline in the wafer-thin Midnight In Paris, Allen’s returned to the structure he used in You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger. So when one plot line sags, another picks things up.

In one, Allen plays failed experimental opera director Jerry, now unhappily retired, in Rome to meet the parents of Michelangelo (Flavio Parenti), his daughter’s fiancé. Turns out Michelangelo’s dad, Giancarlo (Fabio Armiliato), sings like an angel – but only in the shower. On stage he sucks. That doesn’t stop Jerry from trying to kick-start his career – complete with Giancarlo soaping down on stage. Even if Allen is a riot as the ever-hopeful impresario and Judy Davis bristles beautifully as his disbelieving wife, the premise is so ridiculous, it’s hard to care.

In the weakest narrative thread, just-married Antonio and Milly (Alessandro Tiberi and Alessandra Mastronardi) have flown to Rome to meet his way-conservative family, when Milly gets lost and Antonio gets a surprise visit from happy hooker Anna (Penélope Cruz).

Meanwhile, nebbish Leopoldo (Roberto Benigni), consistently ignored by both family and co-workers, suddenly becomes famous and can’t shake the paparazzi and reporters. Allen’s hammered at the empty fame concept before (in particular, Celebrity), but here he has Benigni working for him in wonderful ways.

In the best of the narratives, architecture student Jack (Jesse Eisenberg) and his girlfriend, Sally (Greta Gerwig), are set to welcome house guest Monica (Ellen Page), a hot actor who’s got home-wrecker written all over her. So says Jack’s architect role model, John (Alec Baldwin), with whom he’s had a chance meeting and who counsels Jack as an imaginary friend while Jack gets into deeper and deeper trouble.

The is easily the most compelling plot line works because the actors play it straight and let the comedy do the work for them. Eisenberg, channelling Allen, conveys all the right ambivalences, and Baldwin’s great just doing his all-knowing ironic thing.

But Page is the revelation, expertly faking intellectual enthusiasm and conveying all-consuming egotism at the same time. Bet this isn’t going to be the last movie she makes with Allen.

Rome is gorgeous, of course, lovingly shot by Darius Khondji, who wisely doesn’t linger on the tourist destinations but also shows the everyday – and just as breathtaking – Eternal City beyond the Trevi Fountain. And Allen’s made a great choice in making half the movie in Italian.

Mind you, while you’re balancing the crap with the goodies, you’re also juggling Woody the creep with Woody the endearing schlep. One moment you’re howling at Jerry’s fear of flying and the next rolling your eyes at the idea of a woman being sexually liberated by a thief wielding a handgun.

susanc@nowtoronto.com

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