When In Rome, Avoid Magical Fountains...

Last month, my dad was out of town for the weekend and my mom and I had the house to ourselves, so we decided to indulge in a chick flick marathon. One of movies we watched was When In Rome, a 2010 movie directed by Mark Steven Johnson and starring Kristen Bell.

In this romantic comedy, Bell plays Beth, a career-driven art expert who flies to Rome for her sister’s wedding, where she clicks with Nick (Josh Duhamel), another ambitious young American. After she catches him locking lips with another woman, she drunkenly makes her way to the nearby wishing fountain littered with the coins of those desperate for love and pockets five of them in a symbolic gesture of her contempt for romance. As a result, the men who dropped the coins are instantly drawn to her like a magnet, and once she returns to New York, she has to fight them off with a stick.

The premise of this movie is very silly, but it makes for a pretty entertaining comedy. Beth is in the midst of an important gallery opening, and she has no time for distractions, but it’s hard to focus on her work with these strange men chasing after her all the time. Meanwhile, when Nick resurfaces, she finds herself falling for him but worries that he is only suffering from the same loony lovesickness that has afflicted her other suitors.

These four fellas are a lot of fun. John Heder of Napoleon Dynamite fame plays Lance, an offbeat magician who seems to click with Beth more than the other two young artistic types over whom she has inadvertently cast her spell. Will Arnett is Antonio Donatella, an Italian artist who shows his affection for Beth by painting massive murals of her for all of New York to see, and Dax Shepard is the obnoxious Gale, an aspiring model who is totally in love with himself. Then there’s Danny DeVito, who plays Al, a gentle widower who expresses his romantic ardor with food. Of the four, he is probably my favorite.

Scenery plays a big role in the movie, with many scenes showcasing landmarks in Rome and New York. The impassioned pursuits across the city are amusing, while the fairly standard courtship with Nick is sweet, with some fun twists. One scene involving Kristen Schaal in full goofball mode as a waitress in a restaurant specializing in sensory deprivation is patently absurd, providing both laughs and a squirm or two. There’s slapstick aplenty in the movie, and I would really call it more of a comedy than a romance, though the movie is drenched in romance of the superficial variety.

This is nothing but light, frothy fun, but as long as you approach it as such, When In Rome is an entertaining fantasy that deals with the exhilaration and pitfalls of infatuation.

Dog Comedy is the Best of the Look Who's Talking Trilogy

I've seen all three Look Who's Talking movies, and I enjoyed this film more than its predecessors. All three are okay but not exactly great cinema. In this third installment, young Mikey and Julie are old enough to talk. Mikey is played by the young man from Phenomenon and Seventh Heaven, and while I don't recognize the actress playing Julie, I am relieved that she is old enough to talk here because Roseanne struck me like nails on a chalkboard in the second movie.

Kirstie Alley and John Travolta are still the parents, and this film introduces the new characters of Rocks and Daphne, played by Danny DeVito and Diane Keaton. At the beginning of the movie, Dad receives a very nice position with an airline while Mom loses her job of nine years due to cutbacks. Her new job working as an elf in a Santa display at the mall is less than ideal, but her kids are thrilled that she gets to work so closely with the big guy. Mikey in particular is impressed, and he is convinced that Santa is going to bring him the gift of his dreams: a dog. That is, until he wanders into the dressing room after hours and discovers that Santa is a fake.

Now faced with the disillusionment of his son which can't even be shaken by an entertaining lip-synching performance of The Chipmunk Song, Dad thinks it's time to take the dreaded step and get a dog. Behind his wife's back, he takes Mikey to the kennel and snatches a mutt right out of the jaws of the extermination chamber. But as if Mom isn't going to be mad enough already, Dad's attractive British boss shows up with her Radcliffe-trained poodle, accompanied by a steady stream of accessories. Now the family has two dogs and, increasingly, no dad as he continues to be called away for flights all around the world. As Christmas approaches, it becomes more and more clear that this boss has less than honorable intentions as she keeps him on the job, and the family begins to wonder whether Dad is ever coming back.

Meanwhile, Rocks is a holy terror, tearing up the household at every opportunity. Though initially met with great disdain by Daphne, the two eventually bond in a Lady and the Tramp-esque late-night adventure. But the frazzled mother has had enough of Rocks' antics, and it looks like he's headed straight back for the pound. Is the family doomed to an unhappy Christmas without dog or Dad, or is there just enough holiday magic to bring this family together?

I guess I'm just a sucker for dog movies, and that's probably why this is my favorite of the three films. I also appreciate the faithfulness of John Travolta's character to his wife and family. The kids are also now old enough to speak for themselves, and they do a fine job of it. This film still has a fair share of crude humor which I could certainly do without, but it you can ignore those parts then this is a decent movie to check out. It's not great, but it's not bad, either. If you liked the first two films, you'll like this one, and if you're like me, you'll agree that as far as this series is concerned, the third time's a charm.