All Roads Lead to Rome (2015)

Directed by: Ella Lemhagen | 90 minutes | comedy, romance | Actors: Sarah Jessica Parker, Rosie Day, Raoul Bova, Claudia Cardinale, Paz Vega, Nadir Caselli, Shel Shapiro, Marco Bonini, Rocio Muñoz, Walter D’Errico, Gianclaudio Caretta

In ‘All Roads Lead to Rome’ we meet Maggie (Sarah Jessica Parker) and her recalcitrant teenage daughter Summer (Rosie Day) on the plane. The two are on their way from the US to Italy for a well-deserved vacation. Summer doesn’t feel like the holidays at all and tries every possible way to bother her well-meaning mother. Her boyfriend is in custody for possession of drugs and only if she testifies that the drugs were hers, he will be released. Why would she vacation in such a stupid country as Italy when she can save her boyfriend’s life?

Once they arrive at their destination, the two soon meet Luca, who lives near the Tuscan holiday home. Years ago, before Maggie got married (she has since divorced Summer’s father), she and Luca had a passionate relationship. Summer immediately realizes that her mother still has feelings for this handsome Italian, but Maggie vehemently denies. Nevertheless, the two go on a visit, and there they meet Luca’s eighty-year-old mother Carmen (Claudia Cardinale), who wants to go to Rome at all costs, for reasons that are unclear. At one point Summer sees her chance and wants to drive Luca’s car to the airport so that she can return to New York. But then she has not taken into account the iron will of Carmen, who is a lot less senile than Luca makes out. She goes with Summer whether the pink-haired girl likes it or not… When Luca and Maggie find out, it’s only a matter of time before the two catch up with the runaway ladies…

‘All Roads Lead to Rome’ is a half-hearted romantic comedy. The film is not funny, and there is also something lacking in the area of ​​romance. The chemistry between Sarah Jessica Parker and Raoul Bova is hard to find and it is therefore not credible that the two could never keep their hands off each other. A child can see that Summer’s boyfriend Tyler is definitely not the one for her. The only storyline that contains anything of convincing love is that of Carmen and her old flame Marcellino, but you have to want to see it. The mother-daughter relationship is also based on clichés and on top of that Rosie Day with her British accent stands out against the American gnawing of SJP.

However, this Sarah Jessica Parker vehicle isn’t boring to watch: the setting is beautiful and the characters are just likeable enough to empathize with, although you can feel how this story is going to end.