To Rome With Love

Continuing briskly along his sightseeing tour of European capitals, Woody Allen brings the perpetual shtick to the Eternal City. When in Rome, his cast includes himself, Judy Davis, Alison Pill, Penélope Cruz, Roberto Benigni, Alec Baldwin, Jesse Eisenberg, Greta Gerwig, Ellen Page, and opera singer Fabio Armiliato, among others, and comfort levels vary widely. Allen’s four lazily interwoven tales of temptation and wistful fantasy suffer from false starts and loose ends, not to mention meager ideas and misfired jokes, but maybe there’s some liberation in lacking both the focus of Midnight In Paris and the will to live up to its success. At times this movie even seems vaguely demented, as if a test to determine whether we’ll all just stand politely by as Allen finally descends, doddering, into the void. At other times, though, it is invitingly dreamy. This is Fellini country, after all.