When in Rome Information

When in Rome is a 2010 American romantic comedy film directed by Mark Steven Johnson, co-written by Johnson, David Diamond as well as David Weissman, and starring Kristen Bell and Josh Duhamel. It premiered in the United States on January 29, 2010.

Plot

Successful and single Guggenheim art curator Beth (Kristen Bell) is at a point in her life where love seems like a luxury she just can't afford. Years of waiting for the perfect romance has made Beth bitter. After flying to Rome to attend her younger sister Joan's (Alexis Dziena) impulsive wedding, she meets Nicholas Beamon (Josh Duhamel), who rescues her in a couple of difficult situations but is just as much of a clumsy clod as she is. They hit it off well and reach a point where both parties take an interest in the other.

Just as Beth convinces herself to believe in love again, she sees Nick kissing another woman, who turns out to be the groom's (Luca Calvani) 'crazy cousin'. Slightly drunk and jealous at seeing Nick with another woman, she picks up coins (a poker chip, a rare coin, a penny, a trick quarter and a Euro) from the "fountain of love" (probably based on the Trevi Fountain). She later learns from Joan that legend says that if you take coins from the fountain, the owner of the coin will fall in love with you.

Beth discovers that the legend is true. She is pursued back to New York by a band of aggressive suitors whose coins she took, including a diminutive sausage magnate Al (Danny DeVito), lanky street illusionist Lance (Jon Heder), a doting painter Antonio (Will Arnett), and a narcissistic male model Gale (Dax Shepard). 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 merely under a spell, not truly in love with her.

Joan calls Beth on the day of the gala and informs her that the spell can also be broken by returning the coins to the original owner. Stacey (Kate Micucci), Beth's secretary"?who is highly concerned about Beth's miserable love life"?overhears the conversation and steals the coins, believing that Beth would lead a better life with people loving her, regardless of the spell.

Beth's suitors all show up together at her apartment and she decides to break it to them that she does not love them and plans to return them the coins. After she blurts out her love for Nick to them, she realizes that Stacey has stolen the coins and goes on a mission to retrieve the coins with her suitors aiding her. They all pile into a yellow Vespa 400 microcar (featured on the movie poster), which careens through city traffic, into a hotel and up an elevator.

When Beth explains to Stacey that this is not the way she believes love is, Stacey returns the coins and Beth hands back the coins to their owners. Left with the poker chip, she calls Nick and thanks him for making her believe in love again. As Nick makes his way to the gala to search for Beth in a sudden lightning storm that hits New York, Beth is in a situation with Lance who plays with the poker chip by doing disappearing tricks. She accidentally hits the chip out of Lance's hands and chases it as it rolls down three floors of the spiral gallery.

The chip is picked up by Nick, who appears to be in love with Beth still, convincing Beth that his love was true all along. However, on their wedding day in Rome, Lance reveals to Beth that he had multiple poker chips and the one Beth knocked out on the night of the lightning storm was just one of them, which proves that Nick did not break out of the spell. While exchanging wedding vows, Beth hesitates and dashes out of the building to everyone's surprise. She revisits the fountain of love where she originally picked up the coins and climbs in like before.

Nick appears and climbs into the fountain. He claims that he didn't throw a chip into the fountain at all. He drops the poker chip in the water and the priest is heard yelling 'Free of temptation!'. Beth finally believes Nick and kisses him.

Cast

• Kristen Bell as Elizabeth "Beth" Martin, a successful but hopelessly single Manhattan curator at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City. Although bitter towards love, she seems to yearn for it sub-consciously and is very much in love with Nick.
• Josh Duhamel as Nick Beamon, a semi-confident and nervous man who is in love with Beth and is her primary love interest. He is desperate to win her affections and seems to love her very much.
• Jon Heder as Lance, a street magician who uses his talents to try to get Beth
• Dax Shepard as Gale, a self-absorbed suitor who falls under the spell of the coins and chases Beth
• Will Arnett as Antonio, a.k.a. Anthony or Tony, a wannabe Italian artist who follows Beth to New York
• Alexis Dziena as Joan, Beth's younger sister, who impulsively marries in Rome
• Luca Calvani as Umberto, Joan's groom, whom she met on a business class flight.
• Anjelica Huston as Celeste, Beth's boss and the curator of the Guggenheim
• Kate Micucci as Stacey, Beth's co-worker and friend
• Danny DeVito as Al Russo, another one of Beth's suitors
• Don Johnson as Beth's father (uncredited)
• Bobby Moynihan as Puck
• Kristen Schaal as Alona
• Lee Pace as Brady Sacks, Beth's ex-boyfriend
• Alexa Havins as Lacey
• Shaquille O'Neal, Lawrence Taylor and David Lee appear as themselves.
• Efren Ramirez as Juan

Music

1. "Starstrukk" by 3OH!3 featuring Katy Perry
2. "Stupid Love Letter" by The Friday Night Boys
3. "Heart Bling" by Sofi Bonde
4. "Kickin' with You" by Jason Mraz
5. "Something Beautiful" by Needtobreathe
6. "How Far We've Come" by Matchbox Twenty
7. "I Am Changing" by Mafia Bianca
8. "Shine" by Laura Izibor
9. "Honey, Let Me Sing You a Song" by Matt Hires
10. "Hold On to Your Heart" by Tina Parol
11. "Fox on the Run" by The Academy Is...
12. "Pencil Full of Lead" by Paolo Nutini

Songs from film, but not on soundtrack

• "Make You Feel My Love" by Adele
• "Ave Maria" by the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra
• "If You Can Afford Me" by Katy Perry
• "Cherry Pie" by Warrant

The telephone call scene features the song "I Am Changing" by the Los Angeles band Mafia Bianca LLC, written and produced by Simone Sello and Steven Heinstein.

Production

• Filming took place in Trafford, PA
• To promote the film, Don Johnson and Jon Heder co-hosted WWE's Monday Night RAW on January 18, 2010.
• The 3OH!3 music video for "Starstrukk Remix" featuring Katy Perry was set around motifs seen in and clips around When in Rome, and the song was on the film's soundtrack.
• The Friday Night Boys used clips from the movie in their music video for "Stupid Love Letter", which was featured on the movie soundtrack and in some of the previews for the movie.

Popular references

When Beth hands back the coins to Antonio, Lance, Gale, and Al, it is a parody of The Wizard of Oz, and Beth represents the Wizard giving each one something. 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 film Three Coins in the Fountain about women in Rome who throw coins in a fountain and find love.

Reception

Critical response

The film has received negative reviews from critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 16% of critics gave the film positive reviews based on 109 reviews with an average score of 3.4/10. The consensus states that "A pair of young, attractive leads can't overcome When in Rome's reliance on unfunny gags and threadbare rom-com clichés." Review aggregator, Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average of 0"100 of the top reviews from mainstream critics, gave the film a "generally unfavorable" score of 25% from 24 reviews.

Despite negative reviews, James Berardinelli of ReelViews 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."

Box office

The film was released on January 29, 2010, and opened at #3 with $12,350,041 in United States and Canada. It opened in 2456 theaters, with an average of $5,029 per theater. The film grossed $32,680,633 domestically, $10,362,202 foreign and $43,042,835 worldwide.

Home media

When in Rome was released June 15, 2010, on DVD and Blu-ray Disc.