When In Rome (**)
Directed by: Mark Steven Johnson Starring: Kristen Bell, Josh Duhamel, Anjelica Huston, Danny DeVito, Will Arnet, Jon Heder, Dax Shepard, Alexis Dziena, Kate Micucci, Lee Pace
Seen: April 26th 2010
** Out of ****
Beth Martin (Bell) is a successful and very young museum curator, and at one of her events in the Guggenheim Museum she is approached by her ex-boyfriend, Brady Sacks (Pace), who asks her if she is ready to jump back in. A moment of hope flickers, but then Brady clarifies that he is in a manner both telling her that she will find someone she’ll one day love more than her job and asking her permission to go on – he is engaged to someone else. Thus it is established that Beth is not the most successful person when it comes to relationships.
Meanwhile Beth’s sister, Joan (Dziena), is getting married in Rome, and even though Beth has a very important event in the pipeline, she decides to take the 2 days and flies out to attend the wedding. Here Beth meets Nick (Duhamel), the best man at her sister’s wedding – and she finds him very attractive and charming indeed, even though he seems to be a bit of a klutz (which causes quite a few honest laughs...). Just before the end of the evening though, Beth sees Nick in what seems to be a romantic tryst with another woman, and after an evening which seemed to her to be a great first date between them, she decides to take off without greeting anyone – but not before making one final stop – at the Fontana de Amore (Fountain of Love), a wishing well of sorts.
She picks up 5 coins, and sets in motion a “spell” making the five owners of the coins fall desperately and hopelessly in love with her. The coins belong to Antonio (Arnett), a hopelessly pathetic artist who has an obsession with capturing Beth’s feet; Lance (Heder), a very theatrical street magician who leads the pack concerning creepiness; Gale (Shepard), possibly the most narcissistic male model ever to walk the planet; and Al Russo (DeVito), a sausage salesman with longing in his eyes. Beth’s life back in New York becomes a struggle to both avoid her suitors and get her show ready in time, or get fired. Meanwhile Nick keeps pursuing Beth since he can’t see what went wrong after their great first date.
When In Rome is certainly entertaining enough, but the problem I had with it is the in-between bits being too annoying and downright stupid. The way in which some of Beth’s admirers are portrayed starts out funny but is then taken that extra step past the line of it actually being entertaining. The comedy is more miss than hit, with too many good to great comedian actors clashing on screen. Kristen Bell is fine as the oppressed Beth, and Josh Duhamel is actually pretty entertaining and cool as the slightly goofy Nick – possibly the one guy to fall for Beth without it being under a spell. Alexis Dziena makes my stomach churn whenever she walks into frame, and when she speaks I want to stab at my ears with icicles – I really find her that annoying, luckily she has limited screen time.
Eventually the movie simply didn’t affect me in the way a romantic comedy should at all, even though the filmmakers clearly attempt to endear you as viewer to the characters even further at the end, with the cast dancing around while the credits start running, but this is just too little too late. All the actors are simply playing something funny, and not necessarily someone funny; yes the whole movie is filled with caricatures rather than human beings. When In Rome is fitfully funny and entertaining, but not fitfully enough...
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