Absolutely Brilliant!

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

Woody Allen is best known for playing neurotic New Yorkers for decades. Here, he plays a retired opera conductor whose daughter has relocated to Rome, Italy. Woody Allen has written, directed, acted and produced an all star cast with Alec Baldwin, Jesse Eisenberg, Ellen Page, Judy Davis and Allison Pill in the cast. The film is centered around Roman landmarks like the Trevi Fountain and Piazza Navona. The stories don't intermingle. Davis and Allen played a retired couple visiting their daughter and make a discovery in the shower. Alec Baldwin guides Jesse Eisenberg through a love triangle during his stay. Roberto Benigni and Penelope Cruz also star in this film. There are some scenes done completely in Italian with subtitles. Woody Allen wanted to pay homage to the great Italian film directors like Fellini and others in this film. The film is not so serious but delightful and entertaining to watch overall.

Unwatchable nonsense as we flit between four stories that are too boring to reveal here.The music is ok though.

I give the movie 9 out of 10 - for the cute Italian actress, the beautiful Roman scenery and the helpful, rather unsubtle warning that a relationship with a Hollywood actress is a thing better left alone. However, I give this movie one complete point of deduction for being, in my humble opinion, utter rubbish! Just Because Mr. Woody Allen is confused and clearly overburdened by the task of finding a meaning to life, does not mean that he has to torture his audience as well with his lack of purpose. I don't know, perhaps in America Mr. Woody Allen is beyond criticism, and therefore the American audience and his peers regard his work as brilliant no matter how bad it is. Regardless how many movie stars you put into a production, the film remains bad, if the script is bad. This being said, I do admit there was a kind of genius in some of the sub-plots of the movie - you just had to dig very deep to find it, below all the layers of rubbish covering it. So my advice to Mr. Woody Allen is this: You can do better! Just keep it real - less madness and more realism!

Yes, we've all seen Woody Allen films and know from the outset that they contain several intertwined stories that are distinct yet inextricably linked, and this one was no different. However, the distinction here is the element of fantasy that is involved in each of these stories, which has become increasing central to Allen's films of late, e.g., Midnight in Paris, the stories just seem so much more interesting than I seem to recall in some of his other films. Most noteworthy about this film is the score. It is so beautifully and aptly played throughout that it seems to almost be a narrator of the movie, as it gently guides the viewer from scene to scene. The fantastic score also gives the movie an extra element of rhythm both literally and figuratively in that it keeps things quite upbeat. The acting was very well done, with the exception of Ellen Page, which was not really her fault, because she was simply not well cast for her role. Overall, this movie was great! I thought it was one of Allen's best in quite some time.