AllMovie

Oscar-winner Paul Haggis (Crash) writes and directs this romantic drama that alternates between three tales of intrigue unfolding simultaneously in New York, Paris, and Rome. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael (Liam Neeson) is still reeling from the recent separation from his wife Elaine (Kim Basinger) when he retreats to a Paris hotel room to finish his latest novel. As Michael searches for inspiration, his fiery affair with smoldering journalist and aspiring writer Anna (Olivia Wilde) awakens an intense passion deep within him. Meanwhile, in Rome, unscrupulous American businessman Scott (Adrien Brody) ducks into a place called the Café Americano searching for a taste of home. There he encounters captivating Roma beauty Monika (Moran Atias), who claims to have just lost the ransom she intended to pay her daughter's kidnappers. Smitten and sympathetic, Scott agrees to join her in traveling to a dangerous region of southern Italy, only to realize along the way that he may have fallen victim to an intricate con. As Scott ventures toward an uncertain fate in an unfamiliar country, former soap-opera starlet Julia (Mila Kunis) fights her prolific, ex-husband artist Rick (James Franco) for custody of their six-year-old son in New York City. It seems like a losing battle until Julia's lawyer Theresa (Maria Bello) convinces the court to give her desperate client one last chance to prove she's a fit mother. Now as Julia finds herself on the other side of the glamorous life she once enjoyed, her husband's new girlfriend Sam (Loan Chabanol) watches the situation play out with a heavy heart.