When in Rome

There is a very specific flavor of panic that only a 2010 romantic comedy can provide—a frantic, high-concept energy where the stakes involve magic coins, accidental stalking, and the inescapable gravitational pull of a mid-budget New York apartment. I recently revisited When in Rome on a Tuesday afternoon while my neighbor was loudly arguing with their insurance agent through the wall, and honestly, the chaotic background noise felt like the perfect immersive 4D experience for this movie. It’s a film that exists in that strange pocket of time when studios were still throwing $55 million at "original" rom-coms before the Marvel Cinematic Universe effectively deleted the genre from the theatrical calendar.

The Fountain of Unfortunate Affection

The setup is pure, distilled absurdity. Kristen Bell plays Beth, a high-powered Guggenheim curator who has "given up on love" because that is the mandatory character trait for any woman in a movie wearing a pencil skirt. She flies to Rome for her sister’s whirlwind wedding and, after a brief encounter with a charming reporter named Nick (Josh Duhamel), she gets drunk and impulsively steals five coins from a "fountain of love."

Because this is a fantasy-tinged comedy, the theft triggers a curse: the men who threw those coins in are now hopelessly, aggressively in love with her. This brings us a rotating gallery of 2000s comedy heavyweights. We get Danny DeVito as a sausage mogul, Will Arnett as a self-serious Italian painter, Jon Heder as a street magician (essentially Napoleon Dynamite with a deck of cards), and Dax Shepard as a narcissistic male model. The film essentially operates on the logic of a Looney Tunes cartoon where the anvil is replaced by persistent unwanted male attention.

A Murderer’s Row of Character Actors

What saves When in Rome from being a total slog is the sheer commitment of the supporting cast. Looking back, this was a transitional moment for comedy. You have Will Arnett doing his best "Arrested Development" pompousness and Jon Heder still riding the wave of his indie-darling status. They aren't just playing characters; they are playing archetypes of the "quirky suitor" that defined the era's humor. Danny DeVito, in particular, could find the funny in a grocery receipt, and his presence here adds a layer of seasoned pro energy that the script arguably doesn't deserve.

Kristen Bell is, as always, incredibly likable, even when the plot forces her into physical comedy sequences that feel like they were written for a different movie. There’s a scene involving a "blackout" dinner in a pitch-black restaurant that feels like a rejected sketch from a late-night show, but Bell and Josh Duhamel sell it with more sincerity than is strictly necessary. Duhamel, for his part, is tasked with being the "Is he or isn't he?" mystery—did he throw a coin in, or is he actually in love with her? It’s a thin conflict, but his "clumsy hunk" routine is charming enough to keep the engine humming.

Why the Magic Faded

Watching this now, it’s fascinating to see how it reflects the "Touchstone Pictures" era of filmmaking—slick, bright, and deeply reliant on the chemistry of its leads to paper over a plot that makes zero sense if you think about it for more than four seconds. Directed by Mark Steven Johnson, who had previously spent his time making Daredevil and Ghost Rider, the film lacks the rhythmic snap of a classic rom-com. It feels like a director who is used to explosions trying to figure out how to frame a "meet-cute."

The movie vanished from the collective consciousness almost as soon as it left theaters, partially because it was released at the tail end of the DVD boom. This was the era of the "Special Edition" disc where you’d get a behind-the-scenes look at how they picked the sausage for Danny DeVito’s character, but the film didn't have the legs to become a cult classic. It’s a movie that feels like it was designed to be watched in the background of a dentist's waiting room.

The CGI is minimal, but the "magic" effects of the coins glowing are that specific brand of 2010 digital shimmer that hasn't aged particularly well. However, there is something undeniably nostalgic about seeing a pre-social-media New York and a pre-streaming Rome. It’s a postcard of a world where people still carried flip phones and the biggest threat to your happiness was a magician following you into an elevator.

If you’re looking for a masterpiece of the genre, you should probably keep walking toward When Harry Met Sally. But if you have 90 minutes to kill and a soft spot for Kristen Bell tripping over things while Will Arnett yells in a fake accent, When in Rome is a perfectly acceptable way to spend an afternoon. It’s a harmless, colorful relic of a time when Hollywood still believed in the power of a magical fountain and a well-placed pratfall. Sometimes, a little bit of nonsense is exactly what the curator ordered.