When in Rome Starring: Kristen Bell, Josh Duhamel Director: Mark Steven Johnson Running Time: 91 minutes Rated: PG-13 Produced by Touchstone Pictures, Krasnoff Foster Productions Distributed by: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Reviewed by Bob LaPierre, ConNotations Film Critic Release Date: January 29th, 2010

         Occasionally a movie comes out that is exactly what it promises. This movie is such a film. Billed as a cute, romantic comedy, it hits the mark square on.

            Kristen Bell is Beth the youngest museum director at the Guggenheim and a work-a-holic who, we are told, cares more for her job than anything (or anyone) else.  She meets Nick (Josh Duhamel) at her sister’s wedding in Rome where he is the best man. They dance and seem to connect, but when she sees him with a gorgeous woman Beth decides to drink the bottle of Champaign she brought out to share with him. Beth finds herself in the famed fountain of love cursing the goddess and “saving” some poor souls by taking their coins out of the fountain.

            The story goes that if you take someone’s coin you also take their love. Beth finds herself besieged by suitors soon after her return to New York. One of those suitors is Nick, the one man whose love she actually wants. The others run the gamut of unsuited lovers from a sausage maker (Danny Devito), to a street magician (Jon Heder), to an aspiring artist (Will Arnett), to a self absorbed model (Dax Shepard). Once she figures out that it is the fountain’s magic affecting them she determines to break the spell.

            The ending is sweet if predictable and you walk away with a smile.

            It won’t win any awards for creativity but it is an evening well spent.