To Rome With Love (2012)

Director: Woody Allen

 I don't think you can technically call this an "omnibus" film because the film has one director, but the short stories within this film are all unrelated enough to the point that you could actually think of it like that. There are four stories, and the only thing connecting the four is that they're set in the same city and they're all written and directed by Woody Allen. Critics rarely find these kinds of movies masterpieces because they like the movies to work as a whole and for there to be a reason that we're seeing them all in one sitting. While I do agree, I find that attitude to be more nitpicking. In my view, I'm quite glad that I get to see four new short films made by Woody Allen and starring some wonderful actors all for the price of one movie.

And it's certainly a bonus that all four of the stories are really well done. Allen fully flexes the Italian influences that have been scattered throughout his career (Rossellini, Fellini, Antonioni to name a few). Italian films of the 1960's were especially obsessed with upper class and celebrity culture, and Allen comes up with a story in which Roberto Benigni becomes famous literally overnight involving exactly those themes. But perhaps the best story of the film was the one involving Alec Baldwin as some sort of subconscious stand-in giving life advice to a character played by Jesse Eisenberg. It's a unique story about recognizing wisdom from elders but being unable to accept it. The other two, one in which Allen himself stars as an opera director and another where Penelope Cruz is a hooker pretending to be a wife are not as insightful, but are very funny and show that Allen knows humor like he knows the back of his hand. Allen is an incredibly prolific filmmaker, but more impressive is that he rarely has a misstep. To Rome With Love continues this consistently solid tradition.

Grade: B