Josh Duhamel looks so good in this movie – I didn’t really have a crush on him until now – I think it’s the hoodie under the leather jacket that does it for me! I missed When In Rome in theaters (I miss 99% of movies in the theater since becoming a mom) but it was on my mental list of movies I wanted to rent. Released June 15th, this romantic comedy brings together a great cast of comedic actors including Dax Shepard (loved him in Parenthood, my new favorite show!) as a male model (I’m now strangely attracted to him), Jon Heder as a Chris Angel wanna-be magician, Will Arnett as a struggling artist (when reading about him on imdb I learned he’s a voice in the game Call of Duty 2, random trivia for my husband). Even Danny DeVito is one of the suitors in the film, and he actually came across as very sweet (when most times I’ve found him annoying!) I kinda liked him.
The movie centers around Kristen Bell’s character of Beth – a single work-a-holic in New York who attends her sister’s spur-of-the-moment wedding in Rome. While there she meets Nick (Duhamel), another New Yorker who she starts to take an interest in, only to see him later kissing a saucy woman in a red dress. A little tipsy, Beth climbs into the fountain in front of the church (I learned watching the bonus features that the fountain was constructed just for this movie, making the Romans shake their heads since they have so many gorgeous architectural masterpieces of their own there). She pulls out a few coins, belonging to hopeful men who just want to fall in love (why she didn’t pick out any coins belonging to women is movie magic I suppose).
Beth returns to New York and that is when her suiters start popping up – falling hopelessly in love with her for no apparent reason. Nick too (who Beth confronts about the kiss and learns it was ‘nothing’) is falling for Beth. Beth learns the reason behind the apparent fascination, and also learns that to break the spell she needs to return the coins to their rightful owners. What about Nick though? Is love really love if it’s forced, she wonders?
My husband and I watched this movie together (a rarity since his choice of movies is not the same as mine) and he liked the characters played by Dax Sherpard and John Heder as much as I did. There’s several good one-liners, lots of slapstick comedy (Duhamel falls in a hole in the sidewalk completely randomly at one point) and a hilarious “in the dark” scene that I wish would have been extended – there was potential there for the scene to be so much more! Below is a cute “breath spray” scene from the movie:
The bonus features at the end were fun too – the bloopers were of course hilarious (how could they not be with so much comedic talent working together) and the behind-the-scenes look at filming in Rome was interesting (usually I find these behind-the-scenes extras boring, not so in this case!)
When In Rome isn’t a deep philosophical look at life and love, but it is a cute movie worth watching on a summer night with your hubby or girlfriends.
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