To Rome With Love - Trailer

With 44 movies in 46 years - & (with the exception of 1981) a film a year since 1977 - Woody Allen's prolificity never ceases to amaze, although it does result in him making at least as many terrible films as he does brilliant ones. The jury is still out on his latest, a Rome-set, multiple-story romantic comedy.

European love letters (Match Point, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Midnight in Paris) have served Woody well lately &, even though it is threatening to feel gimmicky, there is reason to hope that To Rome with Love will be vintage lighthearted Woody.

The movie reunites him with Judy Davis (how did she lose her Husbands & Wives Oscar to Marisa Tomei in that movie?!), Penelope Cruz, sprawling casts & multiple story lines & initiates two new faces that seem very well suited to the Allen universe: Ellen Page & Jesse Eisenberg. Cruz's sweet-natured hooker & Allen's strange insistence on perpetuating the college jock fantasy of bi-curious sexy girls seem a bit obvious, but generally I am ready to be convinced that this will be good, decently smart fun.