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Breaking Down The Trailer For Woody Allen's New Film <em>To Rome With Love</em>
By
Ben Yakas
Published Apr 4, 2012
Modified Apr 5, 2012
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By
Ben Yakas
Published Apr 4, 2012
Modified Apr 5, 2012
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It's no secret that we unabashedly, unashamedly love Woody Allen, and will go see every new movie he releases—but that doesn't mean there aren't a lot of stinkers. For every late-period gem like Vicky Cristina Barcelona or the criminally-underrated Cassandra's Dream, you get tonally-wrong stuff like Whatever Works or giant turd Melinda and Melinda. Now that Woody has released the trailer for his latest film, To Rome With Love (watch it below), we asked ourselves: will we be getting Good Woody or Bad Woody?
To try to determine how the new film will be, we examined the trailer through the lens of Woody's past films—don't even bother comparing late-period Woody with anything pre-Deconstructing Harry, trust us on that one. Below, we broke it down into positives and negatives:
- Pro: The film is Woody's seventh to take place/be filmed in Europe. The results have been mixed, but since this is his first in Rome, we'll give it the benefit of the doubt.
- Con: There's a lot of goodwill leftover from Midnight In Paris. But Woody has a notorious streak of following up good movies with bad ones recently—he followed Match Point with the forgettable Scoop, and Vicky Cristina Barcelona with the terrible Whatever Works.
- Con: The film was renamed several times before settling on the somewhat bland To Rome With Love—it originally was known as "The Bop Decameron," and then "Nero Fiddled."
- Pro: Then again, the last time he changed the title of a movie was when he switched Anhedonia to Annie Hall.
- Pro: This is Woody's first time acting on screen in six years. And his character is married to Judy Davis, who starred in classic Allen films such as Alice, Husbands And Wives. Age-appropriate relationships are great!
- Con: His last time acting was in Scoop.
- Pro: Jesse Eisenberg playing the young-Woody type seems promising—as long as we get Roger Dodger Eisenberg and not the 30 MInutes Or Less version. Also Alec Baldwin, who has somehow never only been in one Woody Allen movie before (Alice).
- Con: Roberto Benigni. It's tough to get past that one.
- Pro: However: Penelope Cruz. As a sexy prostitute. And hell, Greta Gerwig seems like a pretty good casting choice (she certainly seems better as the beleaguered spouse/girlfriend role than Rachel McAdams was in Midnight).
- Con: Ellen Page—the whole bisexual/nympho charm vibe is reminding us of Christina Ricci in the godawful Anything Else.
So overall, it's a mixed bag—if we're being honest, the trailer doesn't look that promising. But neither was the Midnight In Paris trailer, and that movie turned out to be a thoroughly enjoyable, surprisingly-beloved film. If Woody leaned more on the romance side and less on the comedy, we could be in store for another pleasant surprise. If it's all dislikable cliched characters bemoaning their angst, we could be in store for You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger Part II.
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movie
to rome with love
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woody allen
Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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