What's next, Woody? "Finding Love in Liechtenstein"? "One Night in Paraguay"? Woody Allen follows up "Midnight in Paris" by pretty much replicating the whole shebang in Rome. Not the going-back-in-time-to-meet-famous-artists plot, but the tone and the whimsy and the heart-wants-what-it-wants storylines and the appreciative-travelogue cinematography. "Rome" doesn't sparkle the way "Paris" did, though. Allen actually gives the liveliest performance here as a neurotic New York opera director who finds that his in-law-to-be is a great singer ... as long as he sings in the shower. It's a conceit that goes pretty much where you'd expect, as does the story of an average man (Roberto Benigni) who finds himself suddenly stalked by paparazzi as if he were famous. That's the problem with "Rome": it doesn't surprise.

- KRISTINA DORSEY