Review of When in Rome (2010) by Sarah E — 09 Feb 2011

There were a few times I caught myself laughing in When in Rome. Not many, but a fair few, enough to start off the review by mentioning them. Unfortunately, the rest of this movie keeps up Kristen Bell's untarnished track record of starring in nothing but awful schlock since the networks killed Veronica Mars. When in Rome might actually be worse than all that because the writers have stripped this movie down to the basic formula. They don't even try to provide a realistic storyline. "We need a wedding in Rome," one writer suggested, and another immediately said, "It's the main character's sister! She met a guy, fell in love, and he's Italian!" And then another writer said, "People, people, please - love takes too fucking long. It's a shotgun wedding. Three months. No, better yet, two weeks! The sister and her fiancee met two weeks ago, and they're getting married in two days in Rome at a fucking gorgeous ceremony! HIGH FIVE!".

The movie doesn't have to be realistic. It's a chick flick, after all. But it shouldn't have played out like a shopping list with the writers checking off one item of the formula after another as they filled up the audience's cart. There was a lot of fun to be had here, but so much of it was overwhelmed by the 90s comedy feel that permeated every scene or worse, the insane amount of time it takes for everything in this movie to occur. The beauty of film is that it doesn't have to take forever. Cut the scene, flash forward, flash back, but whatever you do, don't just flash relentlessly.

Better than Iron Man 2 though. I would probably sit through this movie again.