| When in Rome | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Mark Steven Johnson |
| Written by | David Diamond David Weissman |
| Produced by | Mark Steven Johnson Gary Foster Andrew Panay |
| Starring | Kristen Bell Josh Duhamel Will Arnett Jon Heder Dax Shepard Danny DeVito Anjelica Huston |
| Cinematography | John Bailey |
| Edited by | Ryan Folsey |
| Music by | Christopher Young |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 91 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $28 million[1] |
| Box office | $43.1 million[2] |
When in Rome is a 2010 Americanromantic comedy film directed byMark Steven Johnson and written byDavid Diamond andDavid Weissman. The film starsKristen Bell andJosh Duhamel. It was released byTouchstone Pictures in the United States on January 29, 2010, and was panned by critics but has grossed $43.1 million worldwide against a $28 million budget.
Successful and single 29-year-old Beth, an art curator at theGuggenheim, is at a point in her life where love seems like a luxury she can't afford. Waiting for the "perfect" romance has embittered her. After flying to Rome to be the maid of honor in her younger sister Joan's impulsive wedding, she meets 26-year-old Nicholas Beamon, the best man. He rescues her in a couple of difficult situations but they are both clumsy. Still, they hit it off.
As Beth comes to believe in love again, she sees Nick kissing another woman. Slightly drunk and jealous at seeing Nick with another woman (who only very much later turns out to be the groom's "crazy cousin"), she picks up coins (apoker chip, a rare coin, a penny, a trick quarter and aEuro) from the "fountain of love" (based on theTrevi Fountain). Joan tells her that legend says if you take coins from the fountain, the owner of the coin will fall in love with you.
Beth is pursued back inNew York City by a band of pushy suitors whose coins she gathered, including a diminutive sausage magnate Al, lanky streetillusionist Lance, a doting painter Antonio, and a narcissistic male model Gale. She must return the coins to the fountain to break the spell. As she falls in love with Nick, she realizes that the poker chip belongs to him and is convinced that he is under a spell, not truly in love with her.
Joan calls Beth on the day of a gala and tells her that the spell can also be broken by returning the coins to the original owner. Stacey, Beth's secretary, concerned about her, overhears the conversation and steals the coins. She believes that Beth would lead a better life with people loving her, regardless of the spell.
When Beth's suitors all show up together at her apartment, she tells them she does not love them and plans to return their coins. She also tells them of her love for Nick, but realizes that Stacey has stolen the coins. She sets off to retrieve the coins, aided by her suitors. All pile into a yellowVespa 400 microcar, which careens through city traffic, into the Guggenheim and up an elevator.
Stacey returns the coins and Beth gives them back to their respective owners. Left with the poker chip, she calls Nick and thanks him for making her believe in love again. Nick makes his way to the gala to search for Beth in a sudden lightning storm that hits New York. There he happens to pick up his poker chip, dropped by Beth, and convinces her his love was true.
On Beth and Nick's wedding day in Rome, Lance tells her he had several poker chips, and Nick did not break out of the spell. While exchanging wedding vows, Beth hesitates and dashes out of the church. She revisits the fountain and wades in again. Nick appears and joins her in the fountain. He said he had never thrown a chip in. He drops a poker chip in the water, and the priest is heard yelling, "Free of temptation!" Beth finally believes Nick and kisses him.
| When in Rome: Music Original Motion Picture Soundtrack | |
|---|---|
| Soundtrack album Digital download/Audio CD by Various | |
| Released | January 12, 2010 |
| Label | Atlantic Records |
The telephone call scene features the song "I Am Changing" by the Los Angeles band Mafia Bianca LLC, written and produced bySimone Sello and Steven Heinstein.
When Beth hands back the coins to Antonio, Lance, Gale, and Al, it is a parody ofThe Wizard of Oz, and Beth represents the Wizard giving each one something.[citation needed] Beth tells Gale that she will miss him "least of all". The line is a reversal of what Dorothy Gale says to the Scarecrow ("I'll miss you most of all") when she bids goodbye to him near the end of the film.
The plot of the film is the reverse of the 1954 filmThree Coins in the Fountain about women in Rome who throw coins in a fountain and find love.
The film was panned by critics. Review aggregatorRotten Tomatoes reported that 16% of critics gave the film positive reviews based on 109 reviews with an average score of 3.41/10. The consensus states that "A pair of young, attractive leads can't overcomeWhen in Rome's reliance on unfunny gags and threadbare rom-com clichés."[8] Review aggregator,Metacritic, which assigns aweighted average of 0–100 of the top reviews from mainstream critics, gave the film a "generally unfavorable" score of 25% from 24 reviews.[9]
Despite negative reviews,James Berardinelli ofReelViews gave the film a fair review of 2.5/4 stars, claiming, "The saving grace of the otherwise generic product is that Bell's vivacity and Duhamel's rakish charm allow the viewer to root for them, even if sometimes that rooting goes so far as to wish the script would serve the couple better than it does."[10]
The film was released on January 29, 2010, and opened at #3 with $12,350,041 in United States and Canada behindAvatar andEdge of Darkness. It opened in 2,456 theaters, with an average of $5,029 per theater.[11] The film grossed $32,680,633 domestically, $10,362,202 foreign and $43,042,835 worldwide.[2]
When in Rome was released June 15, 2010, on DVD and Blu-ray Disc.
Authority control databases: National |
|---|