Disillusioned with romance, an ambitious New Yorker travels to Rome, where she plucks magic coins from a special fountain. The coins attract an assortment of odd suitors, including a sausage merchant, a street magician and an artist. But, when a persistent reporter throws his hat in the ring, she wonders if his love is the real thing. - skip ad -   Genres: Comedy and Romance Running Time: 1 hr. 31 min. Release Date: January 29th, 2010 (wide) MPAA Rating: PG-13 for some suggestive content. Distributor: Walt Disney Studios Distribution Cast And Credits Starring: Kristen Bell, Josh Duhamel, Anjelica Huston, Danny DeVito, Will Arnett Directed by: Mark Steven Johnson Produced by: Steven Roffer, Ezra Swerdlow, Andrew Panay

It goes without saying that we root for Beth (Kristen Bell) and Nick (Josh Duhamel), the appealing would-be couple at the center of “When in Rome,” to find bliss together. And it goes without saying that they will. This is a romantic comedy, after all, and no genre is more reliable in its outcome. But if that foreordained result — in this case an Italian wedding at the end to echo the one where Nick and Beth met cute at the beginning — is going to be satisfying, there need to be obstacles along the way. Nothing too serious or painful, of course, but an inkling of trouble sufficient to convince us that the happy ending has been properly earned.

Its failure to produce anything much in the way of worthwhile complication is not the only problem with this frantic and dispiriting movie. (And by the way, “frantic and dispiriting” is pretty high praise for a romantic comedy in these lovelorn times.) There are slapstick gags that fizzle and misfire, as when Ms. Bell tries to smash a vase, or when she squirts breath-freshener spray in Mr. Duhamel’s eyes, or when he falls and bumps into things. There are dull stabs at verbal wit that leave you baffled, bored or slightly grossed out.

“There’s no emotion that can’t be expressed with sausage,” says Danny DeVito, playing an encased-meat mogul who is one of Nick’s rivals for Beth’s affection. (Now is the time to give credit to the screenwriters, David Diamond and David Weissman, also the writers of “Old Dogs.” The director is Mark Steven Johnson, who also did “Daredevil.”)

Mr. DeVito represents the real trouble with the movie, which is its reliance on a sentimental conceit even dumber than the one that animates “Tooth Fairy.” (If there is a movie genre in more trouble at the moment than the comic romance, it’s surely the live-action family comedy, but don’t get me started on that.) Mr. DeVito is one of a gaggle of goofballs desperately smitten with Beth because she plucked some coins out of a fountain in Rome. This caused lightning to strike and those guys to fall in love with her. But Beth thinks that she also extracted one of Nick’s poker chips and must spend the movie fleeing from a set of unworthy suitors while fretting that the worthy one’s love is not real, but rather magical.

If “When in Rome” had some of the giddy, storybook charm of “Enchanted,” this pixie-dusted idea might work a little better. Instead, the Fountain of Love hocus-pocus messes up the tone of the movie, as Beth must contend with some borderline-creepy stalkerish behavior from the various Mr. Wrongs. (The fountain itself at least gives Ms. Bell an opportunity to take off her shoes.) Jon Heder as a goofy street magician is the funniest of the bunch. The others are a moonstruck artist (Will Arnett) and a model (Dax Shepard) so obsessed with his own beauty that his attraction to Beth confuses him.

They all show up in Manhattan, where their beloved works as a curator at the Guggenheim Museum, whose architecture is at least spared the abuse it suffered in “The International.” In the most lazy and perfunctory way imaginable, the film pegs Beth as a high-strung workaholic, a trait offered as explanation for her single state.

Her attraction to Nick proceeds without the initial hostility that is often a feature of movies like this, but her worry about the authenticity of his love exposes an unacknowledged sadness that, if faced head-on, would have made “When in Rome” a much more affecting movie. Beth seems to believe that she doesn’t deserve to be loved without supernatural intervention. Her need for reassurance is disarming, and also more than “When in Rome” can handle.

Instead, it lurches along, making Ms. Bell and Mr. Duhamel look duller than they need to. As for the rest of us, our minds wander from what is supposed to be the movie’s burning question — will Beth and Nick find bliss? — to other matters. Hey, what do you know, isn’t that Don Johnson playing Kristen Bell’s dad?