About.com Rating

When in Rome left me wondering when moviegoers in Rome, and elsewhere across the planet, will finally get to see the first decent romantic comedy of 2010. Sitcom-ish to the extreme, When in Rome plays down to its audience, is loaded with unappealing one-dimensional characters, and gets through its thankfully short running time by throwing in every romantic comedy gimmick in the book.

Silly, predictable, and unimaginative, When in Rome was directed by the Mark Steven Johnson, the guy who helmed Daredevil and Ghost Rider, and written by the team behind The Family Man, Evolution and Old Dogs.

It's an over-the-top, slapstick comedy that covers every base, cramming in every romantic comedy stereotype and putting none of them to good use. Even the main characters' best friends are just second-class Zach Galifianakis and Zooey Deschanel/Krysten Ritter types.

The Story

Workaholic Beth (Kristen Bell) is the youngest curator at the Guggenheim Museum. Beth works for an uptight boss (Anjelica Huston) who apparently played no part in hiring her, has no faith in her skills, and doesn't think she's capable of handling a major show. So, with her boss watching over her like a hawk just waiting for her to make one wrong move, Beth takes off for Rome in the middle of planning a huge event to be the maid of honor at her kid sister's wedding. Her sister's only known the guy a couple of weeks, but that's fine by her wealthy, divorced parents (Peggy Lipton and Don Johnson in throw-away roles).
Beth arrives in Rome, screws up the wedding, alienates her sister's new in-laws, but does find sort of a kindred spirit in the form of her new brother-in-law's best man, Nick (Josh Duhamel).

Beth's not into romance and not looking for love, but Nick has potential. He's handsome, intelligent, has a cell phone that gets reception inside an old Roman church, appears to be heterosexual, and is the right age. Beth thinks for a moment that maybe, just maybe, she can take a chance and open herself up to this guy. But things get wacky when she sees him kissing another woman. Beth guzzles some wine, steps into the 'fountain of love', rails at the statue, and proceeds to take five coins out of the water - coins tossed in by strangers looking for a little help in the romance department.

Beth returns home unknowingly trailed by the five men who tossed in the coins. Of course one of the coins is Nick's. The others belong to an obnoxious male model (Dax Shepard), a street magician with horrible hair (Jon Heder), a frustrated artist who wears entirely too much makeup (Will Arnett), and a sausage bigwig (Danny DeVito). As Beth fights off all this unwanted attention, she figures out it's all about the coins. Though she wants her budding relationship with Nick to be the real thing, Beth doesn't know if he's simply under a 'love' spell.

The Cast

The unfortunate actors charged with playing the guys under Bell's spell do nothing to further the enjoyment of When in Rome. Heder, Arnett, Shepard, and DeVito weren't given much to work with, and none were able to rise above the material and find something fresh to latch onto. I actually felt that, with the exception of DeVito, these roles were all miscast. Arnett's particularly out of place and distracting, but Shepard and Heder are nearly right there with him on both counts.

Duhamel and Bell do have chemistry going for them, and had they been working off a script that wasn't so egregiously unrealistic, these two might have pulled off something memorable here. As it is, When in Rome won't be mentioned by either actor in their career highlights reels.

The Bottom Line

Here's a suggestion for future rom-com writers: if you ever come to a point where you're pounding out a script and you decide that cramming five adult actors into a tiny clown car is a good idea, do audiences a favor and back away from your keyboard. Do not return to working on the screenplay until you've slept, had caffeine, or done whatever it takes to reactivate your braincells.
What's really frustrating is that the writers could have actually made this a fun little comedy, if they'd used a little imagination. Instead, they took the path of least resistance and inserted five generic, recycled 'types' as suitors. Beth pulls five coins at random out of the fountain of love and they all happen to be single men? What are the odds of that, when...I don't know, I'm not a statistician or anything and math isn't my strong suit...but wouldn't it be likely that at least one out of the five coins Beth picks up was tossed in by a woman? Yes, I'm being picky, but it bothers me when the easy road is the one taken.

If the target audience for When in Rome is seven, eight, maybe even nine or 10 year olds who enjoy silly pratfalls and don't care whatsoever about dialogue or character development, then When in Rome is actually a great movie. But for those of us who enjoy smart romantic comedies that are actually well-written, make sense, and have appealing characters at the heart of the story, When in Rome can only be classified as a disappointing addition to the genre. Following on the heels of the first romantic comedy flop of the year, Leap Year, When in Rome tosses out a brick to romantic comedy fans looking for a lifesaver.

GRADE: C-

When in Rome is rated PG-13 for some suggestive content.

Theatrical Release: January 29, 2010

_{Disclosure: This review is based on a screening provided by the studio. For more information, please see our Ethics Policy.}