All Roads Lead To Rome (12) | Home Ents Review

In this romantic comedy, Sarah Jessica Parker stars as Maggie, a single mother from New York City with a teenager daughter called Summer (Day) that has been getting in with all the wrong crowds. In an attempt to keep her daughter away from her drug dealing boyfriend, they take a journey to a Tuscan village that Maggie visited in her younger days in the hope of reconnecting with her daughter.

The film opens with Maggie and Summer on the aeroplane to Italy and only explaining the back history as to why they are there in conversation with each other. Upon arriving at their cottage they are welcomed by Luca (Bova), a handsome gentleman Maggie adored over twenty years ago. As a bachelor living with his eighty-year-old mother Carmen (Cardinale), Luca is over the moon to be reunited with a woman from his past, but when he and Maggie have their backs turned, Summer and Carmen race off to Rome, each with their own intentions.

Although they may be many years apart in age Summer and Carmen have a lot in common when it comes to romance, they both want to be there for their men. Summer is escaping her mother in order to get back to her bad-boy in New York City and Carmen is to secretly wed a man she loved over 30 years ago. As Maggie and Luca chase after the women in their lives, it gives them time to catch up on old times and reconnect.

Parker is best known for her role in hit TV show Sex and the City where she played a single woman living it up the Big Apple. However, playing a single mother to a teenage daughter is a far different experience and Parker is much less believable in this role. She appears to want to be more of a friend that a parent to Summer, which of course doesn’t go to plan.

All Roads Lead To Rome has an enthralling backdrop as it is set between the beautiful Italian countryside and surrounding cities. The story itself sits somewhere between a romance and a road movie, however without any real laughs. It does have romance however, with Carmen and her past love to be wed; even Summer has a tingle in her heart for the situation. There may not be a great deal of excitement and the narrative is pretty see through from beginning to end, however the film is an enjoyable watch and makes Italy seem like a place where love can come true.

Review by Michelle Moore

All Roads Lead To Rome is out now.