All Roads Lead to Rome (2016)

Simply A Masterpiece

One of my all time favorites.

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

No need to give away plot points, since the whole story is absolutely predictable from start to finish. But the way it is peppered with implausible elements, almost offensive sterotypes and clichés, and a totally uninspired direction, make this movie bearable to watch only if you can enjoy unvoluntarily embarrassing, silly moments and scenes. None of the actors seem interested in what they are doing; both Sarah Jessica Parker ad Raoul Bova, elsewhere charming, make you wonder what's even remotely interesting or attractive in the characters the play. And it's quite painful to watch Claudia Cardinale delivering a grotesquely bad acted performance. Close to "so bad, it's good"; alas, it's just bad.

Maggie is an uptight, single mother and college writing teacher from New York City. In an effort to reconnect with her troubled teen daughter Summer, she decides to embark on a journey to a Tuscan village that she frequented in her younger days. Upon arrival, Maggie runs into Luca, a handsome former lover who is still a bachelor and lives with his eighty-year-old mother, Carmen. Summer (missing her "bad boy" boyfriend in NYC) and Carmen (secretly planning a wedding against Luca's wishes to Marcelino, her one true love in Rome) impulsively steal Luca's car and race off to Rome. Maggie and Luca quickly pursue allowing the two mismatched couples to spend some time together and develop a new understanding of each other. Sarah Jessica Parker reaches bottom line with this film, the acting is not that great, her chemistry with her on screen daughter is a gigantic mess, the jokes don't land at all and it's something that we have seen dozens of times before with better actors and better scripts behind them. (0/10)

Wow, what a sad little mess this is. Just caught it on cable this afternoon, because I'd never heard of it and the cast seemed promising.A story-line so clichéd with characters making stupid choices to advance the ridiculous story along. What a waste of Miss Parker and Miss Cardinale. Is it any wonder that it was never released in the U.S.? Pretty much a mistake for all involved. Raoul Bova remains a very attractive leading man. And the young girl who picks up the daughter in her pick up truck is a dead ringer both physically and vocally of the young Claudia Cardinale. Was this done as an homage deliberately? If so, a nice touch.

"A woman takes what she wants, when she wants it." Maggie (Parker) is starting to lose touch with her daughter Summer (Day). In an effort to reconnect they take a trip to Italy. Maggie sees this as a bonding experience but Summer sees it as punishment and is worried about her boyfriend who she left. When Maggie reconnects with a former love it only enforces Summer's desire to return home and she takes a car, and a grandma, and will stop at nothing to fly home. Maggie will stop at nothing to stop her. This is really not that bad of a movie. Generic and formulaic but still worth seeing and I actually enjoyed watching this. The movie is pretty predictable but it is a romantic comedy so that is to be expected. In terms of chick-flicks I have seen worse and while this is nothing super outstanding it was better than I was expecting and I laughed quite a bit. Overall, nothing original or unexpected but still worth your time. Much better than I was expecting. I give this a B.