When in Rome
Directed by Mark Steven Johnson
- comedy
- fantasy
- romance
The story
Disillusioned with romance, Beth, an ambitious New Yorker, travels to Rome for her sister's wedding, where she plucks magic coins from a special fountain of love. The coins attract unwanted attention from an assortment of odd yet ardent suitors: a sausage merchant, a street magician, an artist, and a male model. But when the best man from the wedding, persistent reporter Nick, throws his hat in the ring, Beth wonders if his love is the real thing.
What it’s like
Bright, sun-washed daylight spills across Roman piazzas and wedding-weekend hotel rooms, with saturated golden-hour warmth in the exteriors and crisp, glossy digital polish throughout. The camera stays conventional and tidy, with clean two-shots and easy wide establishing frames of fountains and cobbled squares, and the score is bouncy, string-and-piano romcom pop that keeps things brisk. The vibe is light, cheerful and slightly frothy, a sweet fantasy-tinged romance with a cynical heroine who softens by degrees. It suits a lazy weekend afternoon, a comfort watch with a glass of wine, or something easy on a long-haul flight. Pacing is quick and comedic, with a steady run of farcical suitors and mild physical slapstick. Emotionally it is warm and reassuring, following a guarded workaholic slowly opening up to love. Intensity is very low: romantic and comedic, with no real violence, gore or cruelty, only mild innuendo and bits of bad luck played for laughs. It is for people who want gentle, feel-good romance in a picturesque European setting, without anything heavy.
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