When In Rome (Touchstone Pictures)
So Sweet It Sours
When In Rome is one of those cutesy, sweet, nauseating movies that you expect to get better but it never does. It takes minimally talented actors like Kristen Bell, Josh Duhamel, Dax Shepard and Will Arnett and shows them at their worst. And we wont even mention at this point the abominal performance by Jon Heder. Believe me this is not a movie to watch when in Rome, Paducah or anywhere else. Just say no.
The story starts with Beth (Bell) being humiliated by her ex-boyfriend (Lee Pace). Luckily she has to leave town immediately to be in her sisters wedding in Rome. While at the wedding she meets Nick (Duhamel) and is attracted to him but that relationship also stalls.
Feeling a little pathetic Beth drinks too much and ends up wading in a fountain. For some unexplained reason she decides to pick up four coins and a poker chip and take them with her. For another unexplainable reason this causes the five guys who have tossed the coins and chip into the fountain to fall immediately in love with her.
When she returns to New York five men arrive to pursue her. They include a male model (Shepard), a painter (Arnett), a street magician (Heder), a sausage king (Danny DeVito) and our old friend Nick. The fun, and I use the term loosely, is in watching Beth deal with these five suitors.
Danny DeVito is fun to watch because he makes everything he does seem funny. He is underused in this film as is Anjelica Huston who plays Beths boss. Peggy Lipton and Don Johnson plat Beths parents and it seems more could have been done with them.
Arnett acts embarrassed to be in the film while Heder and Shepard overact to compensate for the lack of anything funny in the script. Bell is blonde, beautiful and boring while Duhamel is just inept as the romantic lead.
To add insult to injury there is a dance number tacked on at the end of the movie while the credits roll. Most of the cast members participate in this event much to their embarrassment and ours. There must have been a gun pointed their way from off camera.
The film is rated PG-13 and that is another mystery. There is some mild profanity and thats it.
When In Rome is a movie to be avoided in theaters and when it is released on DVD. The only redeeming features are the good looks of the two leads and the fact the movie is clean. You could watch it with your grandmother.
I scored When In Rome a stay at home 3 out of 10.
