There have been a few romantic comedies I have seen lately.  When viewing them, the obvious thing on which to focus is love.  When Hollywood broaches this subject, it is boy meets girl and all heck breaks loose.  The zaniness is the comedy, supposedly.  Then I come along and try to apply my Catholic Faith to the silliness.  Love is a serious matter.  God sent His only Son out of a love beyond our full comprehension in order to die for our sins.  He did it for our benefit, and the closest we have come to describing this act is what the Greeks call agape.  It is that which seeks the betterment of the other for their benefit and not our own.  If this sounds a lot like charity, that is no mistake and the Bible more often translates “love” as “charity.”  Given this information, I was cheered when while watching When in Rome (2010) when one of the characters described the highest form of love in this manner.  It is one of the many qualities of the film.

Then again, the main quality for why I chose When in Rome is the title city, having been there last year for a pilgrimage. Then it had to go and ruin it with a magic, love inducing fountain, but we will get to that in a moment.  For now, we focus on the Guggenheim’s successful art curator, Elizabeth “Beth” Ann Martin (Kristen Bell).  She is dedicated to her work to the point that her co-workers and friends are concerned that she is passing on relationships, and thus life, in favor of her career.  Still, when her ex-boyfriend appears at one of her openings, she is open to giving the relationship another try until he mentions that he is engaged to someone else.  Already not in a good mood, she comes home to her sister, Joan Martin (Alexis Dziena), informing Beth that she is getting married to a guy she met two weeks ago.  Not only does Beth think this is a terrible idea, it comes just as she is under pressure at work to come up with a difficult to obtain piece for an upcoming exhibit.  Her boss, Celeste (Anjelica Huston), lets Beth go to Rome for the wedding, but only after the curator promises to stay on top of the sought after piece as she travels.  Though a little late, Beth is at her sibling’s side when the ceremony starts.  The person who holds up the proceedings is Nick Beamon (Josh Duhamel), the best man.  Nonetheless, they catch each other’s eye, and during the reception, the chemistry between them developments to the point where she is ready to give love another chance.  Her hopes are dashed once more when she walks outside in time to see him kissing the groom’s, Umberto (Luca Calvani), cousin.  Bitter again, Beth walks into the aforementioned water feature and takes out the coins of a few random people, thinking it will save them from the heartache she is experiencing.  In that moment, we see a number of people have a sudden transformation, and they will be introduced as needed.  Beth is unaware of any of this, and it is back to New York just as soon as possible and back to work.  It does not take long for her to feel the effects of her act of defiance in the Roman fountain.  While jogging in Central Park, she is accosted by Antonio Donatelo (Will Arnett), one of the spellbound we saw earlier, an Italian artist who begs to sketch her feet.  Naturally, Beth speeds up and eventually loses him.  This is the beginning of a number of such incidents with the others.  At the same time, she gets a phone call from Nick.  She does not recall giving him his number, so she believes it is more of the strange occurrences.  His appearance, though, proves fortuitous when she gets to office and learns that her plucky assistant, Stacey (Kate Micucci), has innocently prevented the delivery of the expected centerpiece.  Nick is on hand for this revelation and offers a famous picture of him from his days as a college football player, having been struck by lightning while on the field.  Beth is touched by the gesture, but she soon learns from Joan why she has been basically harassed.  There is a legend that if you take the coins tossed into the fountain by those searching for love will make that person fall in love with you.  Among the various bits she had snatched from the water is a poker chip, and it corresponds to a story Nick had told the night he met Beth about having played poker during the bachelor party.  Therefore, she assumes that he is under the same spell as the rest despite his insistence that his feelings are genuine.  This revelation causes her to avoid him, which is made harder by the fact that she has come to love him.  It is at this point that Joan calls to inform Beth that the spell can be broken if she returns all the coins to their wish makers.  Gathering everyone on the night of her next big opening, and getting them all to the museum after discovering that Stacey stole the coins out of a desire for her boss to find a relationship, she returns all the wishes.  However, the magician Lance (Jon Heder), does a trick with the poker chip, making it appear as if there are three.  Still, Nick does come through with his picture, and the exhibit is a success.  It is enough to convince her to marry him, but on the wedding day (once more in Rome), Lance finally produces the correct poker chip.  Leaving Nick at the altar, Beth runs out to the fountain.  He finds her there and tells her that he never threw the chit into the water.  Instead, it had been Father Dino (Keir O’Donnell), the priest who had also joined into the poker game.  With that, Beth and Nick kiss and presumably live happily ever after.

I wonder how many people who read that bit about Father Dino, or saw When in Rome, wondered at the notion of a priest playing poker.  There are a few ideas to unpack about a gambling priest.  First, if you think there is something wrong with that, you are probably worthing with stereotypes.  Every man of the cloth is a human being just like you and me.  There is a tendency to presume such people are above sin, which they are not, and thus we are shocked when we hear about them behaving in unexpected ways.  Besides, there is nothing wrong with an occasional wager as long as it does not become an addiction.  Anyway, all this is making a mountain out of the molehill that is one moment.  The bigger take away from it is the suggestion that a priest would be throwing a wish into a love fountain.  This could be my own prejudices, but I have made a career out of studying the ways in which Catholicism is presented on film, and one aspect of religious life that does not seem to make sense with Hollywood is celibacy.  One of the reasons why I think the broader culture has a problem with this idea is actually discussed (though not purposely) in the film.  On the eve of her wedding, Beth is talking to her father (Don Johnson) about the wisdom of marriage.  She has spent much of the movie doubting its authenticity, believing that it will fall apart as soon as it begins.  His response to his daughter is that she is going to have to take the risk.  It is that risk that I sense is the issue.  There is a comfort in a relationship, particularly a physical one, a security in the idea that there is someone there to support you.  It is hard when that person in whom you have placed your trust betrays you, especially when you have been intimate.  When it comes to taking Catholic religious vows, who is the person that will be there for you?  The answer is God, but that is too esoteric for most to understand.  In reality, God will never betray you or let you down.

What is also not a let down is When in Rome.  It has a great cast, and it never resorts to the kind of raunchiness that typifies many romantic comedies.  There is one aspect of the movie that I do wonder about, however.  The star is Kristen Bell, and one of the guys who is enchanted into falling in love her is Gale (Dax Shepard).  Bell and Shepard married in 2013, but were dating in 2010.  Is it weird to see your significant other kissing another guy while you are present, even if it is for work?  That aside, it is a solid piece of cinema.