"When In Rome" review

Once again, I was single on Valentine's Day. It's usually the one time of year I really want a boyfriend. My inner, bitter single girl would come out and I would flash dirty looks at the happy couples as they walked by...well, their backs were turned, but still. The past couple years, however, I wasn't so bitter. I spent the day with good friends of mine both years. This year, my best friend and I did what single ladies probably should not do on Valentine's Day: we saw "When In Rome," a rom com.

Usually I'm a sucker for romantic comedies. Yes they are predictable, yes they always seem to have a happy ending, yes some lines are cheesey, cliche even, but I like them anyway. However, now that I've actively tried to date and have been learning dating do's and don'ts, learning about how young men operate when dating someone, somehow, this romantic comedy just didn't please me. It was too cheesey, celebrating the pathetic and nonexistent. Case in point, Elizabeth (the main character) has a younger sister, who marries a guy she met on a plane after two weeks of knowing each other. The younger sister spouts the usual "he's the one, I'm just so happy with him," lines. Call me cynical, but I believe love at first sight is extremely rare, especially because during the first two weeks of dating someone, those euphoric feelings are typical. The novelty of a new person hasn't worn off yet. You're still getting to know each other then. How can anyone decide to marry someone after two weeks? That's attraction, infatuation, lust, not love!

Actually, "When In Rome," pretty much is all about love at first sight. But man, it's so easy to confuse that initial excitement with love. That's all it is, excitment, a feeling, fleeting, yet in this movie, people are making life decisions during that stage of dating. I just couldn't get into it. Maybe before I started dating more seriously, I'd take the movie less seriously and really enjoy the nice light romp. All I really enjoyed about the movie was Anjelica Huston (one of my favorite actresses who had a cameo) and Jon Heder (Napoleon from "Napoleon Dynamite"). It's amazing how Huston can take a stock character, the mean female boss, and make her cool, give her that Huston flair. How does she do it?

If you haven't seen the movie, don't. Not worth ten-ish dollars. My friend really enjoyed it, but she has a high tolerance for cheesiness (higher than me, anyway). The acting is mediocre, the ending dance number is corny, and it calls attraction "love." Some moments were funny and a couple lines were wise, but the little glimmers of light just weren't enough.