All Roads Lead to Rome doesn't have the romantic magic Italy deserves

Movie: All Roads Lead to Rome

Grade:   C-

Rating:   PG-13, 1 hour 30 minutes

In a Nutshell:    I LOVE Italy, which is the best thing about this rom-com.  Set to release in select theaters and On Demand in February, Sarah Jessica Parker carries this cheesy love story.  The last time we saw her in Europe, she was in Paris, starring in Sex and the City: The Movie with her glamorous outfits and co-stars. 

This time, she is racing around the Italian countryside after her delinquent teenager daughter.  She tells her daughter at the beginning of the movie how laid back and peaceful Italy is, yet the film doesn’t give us either one of those things.

This is no Under the Tuscan Sun , which I loved, although Raoul Bova, who romanced Diane Lane in that movie, is the love interest of Sarah Jessica Parker in this one.  By the way, here is a picture of me with Diane Lane!

  

Uplifting theme: 

• Love:  romantic and unconditional
• Patient parenting

Things I liked:

• Maggie puts up with a lot of terrible behavior from her daughter.  I admire her patience and determination.  I also admire how she is able to walk on Italian cobblestone streets in her high heels.
• You get to see some beautiful scenery in Italy, although not nearly enough.  Here are some pictures from my trip to Rome a couple of years ago.

    

           

Things I didn’t like:

• Summer (Rosie Day), Maggie’s daughter, is extremely unpleasant.  She’s such a bratty, ungrateful teenager and her hair looks like stringy cotton candy.  Writers Cindy Myers and Josh Appignanesi should have let us see some of her redeemable qualities so that we could have cared about her. 
• There is a lot of Italian spoken without subtitles.
• There is so much racing around that you don’t really have time to enjoy the gorgeous Italian landscape and sites.  The scenes in Rome are so short that you don’t get to enjoy that beautiful city either.
• The film is filled with constant bickering.  It’s supposed to be playful, but it’s mostly annoying.
• Tons of romantic clichés, such as “Separate rooms? I’m sorry. We only have one room left in the hotel for tonight.”

Interesting lines:

• “A woman takes what she wants when she wants it.” – Maggie

Tips for parents:   

• Some profanity.
• Lesbian innuendoes.
• Drugs and other illegal behavior.

By the way, if you get to go to Rome, be sure to toss a coin in the famous Trevi Fountain.  If you do, it means you will return.  I did it when I was in college and I DID return!