The toxic ass men of Rome more like. This is just a sad movie that starts sad and just gets sadder. Mrs Stone’s complete lack of self-confidence (shes 45 and thus ‘too old’ to act) meets new lows after her husband dies and she finds herself without any sort of sense of purpose left. So she ends up with a young Italian gigolo to help fill the time, but he’s unfortunately too cute and too self confident to deal with her tight purse strings. Felt very disturbed by the ending of this, which could be interpreted as her manipulating somebody with even less self confidence than she and thus her ‘perfect man’—totally reliant on her as she is—or as the manifestation of Paolo’s brazenly heartless comment about how he expects her to be found with her throat slashed in 3 to 4 years because that’s just what happens to rich old crones like her. 

Geesh. And here I was laughing every time Beatty opened his mouth to attempt an Italian accent (that comes out more like Speedy Gonzalez meets a subdued Borat). The biggest problem with this movie, other than its oppressive plot and stilted direction, is just how unlikable Beatty is as Paolo. He’s absolutely devoid of charm from the get-go, and I’m sorry just being cute can only take you so far.