Room in Rome

Alba and Natasha.

Two beautiful young strangers meet in the romantic city of Rome. They proceed to Alba’s hotel room for what began as a harmless sexual adventure to put the finishing touch to their last night in the city. However the two immediately connect and over the next twelve hours fall in love with one another. The next morning we observe Alba return to her partner in Spain and Natasha return to Russia to marry her fiancée or do we?

Directed by Julio Medem, Spanish writer and director who was responsible for The Red Squirrel (1993), Room in Rome (2010) is his first English language film. The film stars Spanish actress Elena Anaya (Talk to Her 2002, Van Heising 2004, Mesrine 2008 Hierro 2009) as Alba and was released straight to DVD by Optimum because the company had problems categorising and marketing this very arty movie. Bathed in a constant brown sepia type hue, nearly all of the film is spent in the hotel room with our two protagonists naked most of the time. As attractive as this sounds it really is a case of style over substance, the whole thing is a touch portentous and if it’s an erotic thrill your looking for this film does not fit the bill.