'Rome' rides heavily on Allen's name

Without the director’s touch, the film would be an even bigger flop

By Mick LaSalle
San Francisco Chronicle

POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Jul 06, 2012

~~<p>The wide disparity in quality between Woody Allen's best and worst films leads us to the Pet Monkey Theory of Allen criticism, which postulates that the writer-director has a pet monkey, who has learned to type, and cranks out about half the screenplays — scripts that Allen goes ahead and films anyway, because he likes to hang out with actors. By this reckoning, for example, "Midnight in Paris" was clearly written by Allen himself.</p>
<p>"To Rome with Love" was written by the monkey.</p>
~~

The wide disparity in quality between Woody Allen's best and worst films leads us to the Pet Monkey Theory of Allen criticism, which postulates that the writer-director has a pet monkey, who has learned to type, and cranks out about half the screenplays — scripts that Allen goes ahead and films anyway, because he likes to hang out with actors. By this reckoning, for example, "Midnight in Paris" was clearly written by Allen himself.

"To Rome with Love" was written by the monkey. Login for more...