Woody Allen is back again.

After the success of "Midnight in Paris" I did not expect another hit from Woody quite so soon.

Of course the term "hit" is only mine and others who saw and enjoyed the film. With the exception of the New Yorker the critics have given it a less than warm reception. Why? I can't imagine.

I liked this movie - a lot.

It was back to the clever humor of the Woody Allen we remember. And he plays the neurotic   bumbling nerd we haven't seen for several films.

                                                                                   There are several plots or stories. Much like a      Robert Altman film, various lives cross and intersect -sometimes.

Roberto Benigni plays a middle class man who unwillingly becomes a celebrity. Not because he does anything but just -because. Much like reality stars and Nicole Riche or Paris Hilton.  Allen shows us the silly side of the public's fascination with the famous.

Allen plays an unfulfilled retired opera director.
His wife is played by Judy Davis and the chemistry between the two worked for me. They are in Rome to meet their daughter's fiance and his parents. The fiance's father has a beautiful operatic voice but ONLY in the shower. This provides a lot of laughs in the film.  Jesse Eisenberg and Alec Baldwin play architect and student with Baldwin as the conscience of the younger man as he tries to sort out lust from love.

Penelope Cruz does well with comedy as a prostitute having to act as the wife but educating the young naive newlywed in sex.

Many critics have said that Allen couldn't decide which story he wanted to tell so he "threw them all" onto the screen.

All this in the warm and golden cinematography
of Rome and all of its beauty.

Thanks Woody. I loved it.
4*'s