When in Rome

Well if you saw the trailers you know the premise, girl in Rome decides to pick up coins from a fountain, which invokes the original owner when the coin was tossed to fall in love with her....

First, they missed the comedic opportunity to have ONE of those people be a girl, but whatever; I guess it is only men who toss coins in the fountain in hope of love.

What was on the screen was fine. The actors all gave comedic performances up to that of previous RomCom formula films. The problem with the film is what is NOT there. This film seems to suffer from being over edited and cut down to 91 minutes. We get a short set-up to TRY and empathize with the leads and we get no (and I mean ZERO) background on the other men competing for love other than their career choice, before watching them behave silly. At the end we get a very brief explanation of from where each love stricken pursuer life was prior to being hoodwinked, but its too late and provides no fulfillment.

The movie plays out many jokes and gags that have no pay off since there was nothing behind them. There are a few moments where a punch-line obviously had some meaning in the relationships of the characters, but seems unfunny as the meat and plot behind the joke is missing.

In the end, we get a shell of a movie, it has a nice frosting but the cake has been stripped!! It seemed like if they had left, some of what was obviously cut, in the film it could have been really good. But the final product we get lacks anything memorable.

Skip at the high priced theater, and wait for video.

Honestly this is what Rom Coms are about. Romance comedy and a thread that connects the story. It met all those expectations and more. Good A list actors hitting main and cameo parts. Romance=Rome=NYC. Comedy= the entire cast. Sit back and enjoy. Enjoy the magic and the premise that there is free will when it comes to love. Kristen Bell is as entertaining as ever. Josh Duhamal does a good job as a leading man. Dax Shephard a great character actor as always. Maybe a bit too much spark with Kristen Bell. Anjelica Huston and Danny DeVito round out the cast. Why rate it less than a B+?? Can't see why some people are rating this low on the Rom Com scale.

Harmless romantic comedy with a twist: A down-on-her-romantic luck American (Bell) steals some coins out of the Fountain of Love in Rome, and the men who threw those items into that fountain all fall in love with her, and pursue the bewildered girl. She's in Rome for her kid sister's wedding where she meets and quickly falls for the charming Josh Duhamel, who looks great even if he isn't given a chance to do any real acting here. When she catches him smooching with another woman, she figures she's back where she started, romance-wise, and returns to New York. Duhamel pursues her, of course, as do the four smitten men (DiVito, Shepard, Arnett and Heder). She now has to figure out how o reverse the spell. Some funny moments, nice location photography (as far as I could tell) and the elfin Ms. Bell make it worth a watch by the gals. And there's a nice tip of the hat to THE WIZARD OF OZ near the end. A trifle at best. Don Johnson has a small role as her dad. Anjelica Houston has an even smaller role as Bell's boss.

Wow, the reviews of this one are pretty harsh. I want to congratulate the film makers for not using profanity, sex, or violence. That in itself is refreshing and inspiring. It honors Romantic Comedies of the fifties and early sixties, which entertained without corrupting our souls.

I agree with the many reviewers who said the comedy and antics in this one were forced and didn't work, to a large extent. However, a scene in a unique restaurant was reasonably original, and one in a crowded car was somewhat cute.

Both leads were attractive and performed adequately. I don't think the roles were much of a stretch for either one, but that's o.k. They are who they are, like Doris Day and Rock Hudson were who they were. I'm sure both of these actors will do some more drama in the future.

What the film lacked was subtlety. It was so frenzied, and tried so hard to be cute, that I felt a bit edgy in my seat. I wanted to say, "Just relax and let me find out more about who these people are." Even a few more quiet scenes with heartfelt dialogue would have sufficed.

But I guess the makers were committed to a formulaic approach. The price they'll pay for that is that the movie will quickly fade from your memory. That is not necessarily such a bad thing, as it did entertain, kept clean, and left one feeling some sense of hope about love.

I prefer that to pictures that add to my cynicism.

There's a lot of negative reviews on here about this, I'm just really glad I watched the film before reading them!! Sometimes a film asks you to suspend your disbelief. The very premise of this film is so preposterous as to not be out of place in an animated Disney film, so I find it incredible that more people didn't watch the film with that in mind. It has an excellent supporting cast, all of which hit the mark, fans of Napolean Dynamite will be delighted, and the leads are really good, Bell in particular.

Sure it's not ground breaking (rom-coms almost never are, by their nature we usually have an idea of what's coming), but it's full of fun and it's been made well, with enough substance and humour to keep you going til the end - unlike some rom-coms with much higher ratings. I would recommend checking it out if you like to lose yourself in fantasy and you're a fan of the genre