I didn't expect When in Rome to be particularly good, but it ended up being a perfect example of how Hollywood has lost its capacity for glamourous gloss. You look at movies like Three Coins in the Fountain or Roman Holiday, and you wonder how hard it really is to at least put a little spunk into this kind of story. A romantic comedy generally works best if you leave out most of the forced "comedy" and just let the romance flow.

Kristen Bell is a lonely, workaholic Guggenheim employee who just absolutely needs a man to be complete. She gets drunk at her sister's wedding in Rome, wades into the Fontana d' Amore, and plucks out some coins. Magically, a set of suitors stalk and obsess over her. The cover makes it look like the original title was When in Rome, Don't Forget to Get Down and Freaky, Girl!.

The movie is actually nothing like that. The thrust is more of a wish fulfillment aimed at young working women who want to believe that they are the key to making men everywhere happily miserable. I'm saying that as an unbelievably happy married man. Rome is ultra-tame to the point that they could have made it with 18-year-olds for ABC Family. Save for a spirited (though brief) turn by SNL's Bobby Moynihan, the movie is devoid anything resembling a chuckle. The featurettes on the Blu-ray/DVD are mildly diverting, mostly thanks to the riffing from Danny Devito and Will Arnett. The alternate opening and ending both blow. The test audiences were very right on both counts.