Another location shift again offers another energy boost for Woody Allen - even if it's too long and there's a scene that's clunky, it at least has Rome scenery to help out. This was funded by Italian distributors and is actually really Italian - there are several stories, two of which focus on locals and are in Italian (is this the most subtitled Woody Allen film since What's Up Tiger Lily?).
The plot feels like its cobbled together from discarded bits and ideas Allen has collected over the years - a wealthy successful architect visits his younger self, a visiting American discovers a brilliant opera singer (these first two are magical realism), an average man becomes famous for no reason (Woody having a dig at his recent notoriety), a honeymooning couple split up (an Ingmar Bergman-style sex comedy).
Woody doesn't really make great strides in characterisation here - the lead of each of the four stories is a Woody Allen type (one is played by Woody Allen); the female characters are variations of recognisable tropes (a sexually voracious erratic actress, an American studying abroad, a hooker, a pretty sweet thing who turns out to be hot for a role in the hay with a thief). However there is a good cast including Jesse Eisenberg, Roberto Benigni, Alison Pill and Judy Davis. Woody is a bit rusty here as an actor - age has slowed his comic timing - but at least he is married to Davis who, while still young enough to be his daughter, at least has wrinkles and isn't young enough to be his granddaughter. Overlong, and a bit creaky but quite fun. As long as Woody keeps shifting locations for the rest of his career he should be okay.
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