To Rome With Love (2012)

TO ROME WITH LOVE  (2012)  ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2
    D: Woody Allen
    Woody Allen, Judy Davis, Alec Baldwin,
    Roberto Benigni, Penelope Cruz, Jesse Eisenberg,
    Ellen Page, Greta Gerwig, Alison Pill
The Woody Allen tour of Europe continues, with four stories, intercut but not interconnected, set in the Eternal City. Roberto Benigni plays an office worker who discovers the perks and pitfalls of 21st-century fame. A young couple from a small town get separated, and each has a madcap romantic adventure. An architect (Alec Baldwin) revisits his old neighborhood and becomes a sort of guardian angel to a guy who could be a younger version of himself. And Woody plays a music producer whose latest discovery can sing "Pagliacci" brilliantly, but only in the shower. The themes are ones Allen's played with before, repeatedly, but the dialogue's witty, as always, and the stories hold up better as an anthology of shorts than any of them would standing alone as a feature. It's the first movie since "Scoop" in which Woody has actually appeared, and it's nice to be able to report that not only are his neuroses alive and well, but he's still in touch with his funny bone.