To Rome with Love

image for To Rome with Love

Short takes

Not recommended under 15 due to adult themes and sexual references

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for To Rome with Love
  • a review of To Rome with Love completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 25 October 2012.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 15 Not recommended due to adult themes and sexual references

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.

Name of movie: To Rome with Love
Classification: M
Consumer advice lines: Infrequent coarse language and sexual references
Length: 112 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

Set in the ‘eternal city’ of Rome, this film tells the stories of many different characters whose paths cross. They include a young American tourist, a young couple on their honeymoon, an ordinary person who wakes up one day to find himself a celebrity, a bashful opera singer and a young architect and his insecure partner. The romantic misadventures that follow are both funny and poignant.

Themesinfo

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Adult relationships

Use of violenceinfo

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is a little violence in this movie including:

  • An angry wife threatens someone with a kitchen knife
  • A couple in a hotel bedroom are surprised by a burglar waving a gun.

Material that may scare or disturb children

Under fiveinfo

Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.

Nothing apart from scenes mentioned above under ‘Use of violence’

Aged five to eightinfo

Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

Nothing apart from scenes mentioned above under ‘Use of violence’

Aged eight to thirteeninfo

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

Nothing of concern

Thirteen and overinfo

Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.

Nothing of concern

Product placement

The following products are displayed or used in this movie:

  • Alitalia
  • Illy cafe

Sexual references

There are some sexual references in this movie, including:

  • Several discussions about sex and sexuality including gay sex, losing one’s virginity, learning how to be a better lover, having several partners at once, having great orgasms and the dilemma of committing adultery.

Nudity and sexual activity

There is some nudity and sexual activity in this movie, including:

  • Nothing too graphic but several implied sexual relationships – couples in bed together and a young couple who have sex in a car which is shown rocking.
  • Several women in very brief and alluring clothing.

Use of substances

There is some use of substances in this movie, including:

  • Social drinking at several venues and events.
  • A prostitute talks about how her father was a drug dealer.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

  • Oh God
  • bullshit
  • for Christ’s sake
  • screw
  • fuck

In a nutshell

To Rome with Love is a romantic comedy, made in typical Woody Allen style, that is aimed at older teens and adults. Rome is a beautiful background for a movie and the cinematography shows it in its best light, revealing why it is such a popular tourist destination. The film is not recommended for under 15s. It lacks interest for younger viewers and contains sexual references and adult themes.

The main messages from this movie include the fickle nature of fame and today’s obsession with celebrating the very ordinary and mundane things of life.

Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:

  • Making the most of one’s talents.

This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children attitudes and behaviours, and their real-life consequences, such as:

  • How the movie portrays love and marriage and how relationships today are often temporary and self-fulfilling.