BrianRxm Coins in Movies 363/377
When in Rome (2010)
American girl retrieves coins from "Fountain of Love"
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The 2010 film "When in Rome" is about an American girl who goes to Rome and takes five coins from the "Fountain of Love." The fountain legend says that if one takes a coin from the fountain the owner will fall in love with the taker.
 
The coins include the United States coins Buffalo nickel, Lincoln cent, Washington quarter, along with an Italian euro and a plastic poker chip. Also seen is an Italian pre-euro 500 lire coin.
 
Kristen Bell plays Beth, the New York girl who takes the coins, and Josh Duhamel plays Nick, the man she meets and falls in love with. Most of the film is set in New York City.
 
When In Rome
1. Title
The title coin graphic is based on a bi-metallic euro or Italian coin.
 
The next scene shows the "Fountain of Love" in Rome.
 
When In Rome
2. Fountain of Love
The "Fountain of Love" is based on Rome's famous Trevi Fountain, which was featured in the 1954 film "Three Coins in the Fountain."
 
Like the Trevi Fountain, the Fountain of Love has a pool where people throw coins.
 
When In Rome
3. Coins in the fountain
The wavy images are of modern "Euro" coins.
 
Beth is a single young woman living in New York City. She works as a junior art curator at New York's Guggenheim Museum, a large modern art museum.
 
She goes to Rome to attend the wedding of her sister to an Italian man. There she meets Nick, another wedding guest.
 
When In Rome
4. Beth and Nick meet
They form an immediate attraction but when Beth leaves the wedding with some wine, she sees Nick kissing another woman.
 
Beth wanders over to the fountain and starts drinking.
 
When In Rome
5. Beth at the fountain
She starts looking at the coins in the pool.
 
When In Rome
6. Coins in the fountain
The coins here appear to be mostly American coins, copper cents, nickels, and clad coins.
 
When In Rome
7. Beth picks up coin
Beth picks up five coins, one at a time. After she picks up each coin, the man who left it is shown with an indication that he has magically fallen in love with Beth.
 
Four of the men are in New York City and are men who Beth would have no romantic interest in.
 
When In Rome
8. The magic works on Al the Sausage King
Al is very wealthy and is one of the patrons of the museum.
 
When In Rome
9. The magic works on Antonio the painter
 
When In Rome
10. The magic works on Lance the magician
 
When In Rome
11. The magic works on Gale the male model
 
When In Rome
12. The magic works on Nick?
Beth heads back to New York with the five coins.
 
When In Rome
13. Beth holding the five coins
The coins are a US Lincoln cent, US Washington quarter, an Italian euro, and a plastic poker chip. The US Buffalo nickel which appears later is not shown here as it is probably under one of the others. The Italian euro's design is based on Leonardo Da Vinci's illustration "The Vitruvian Man."
 
She places the coins in a bowl.
 
When In Rome
14. Five coins in the bowl
The coins shown here clockwise are a US Buffalo nickel with the Indian head side up, an Italian euro, a US Washington quarter, a US Lincoln cent, and a blue and white poker chip with a joker head on it.
 
The four men comically pursue Beth, the magician follows her around doing magic tricks, the model keeps taking off his shirt to expose his muscles (and tattoos), the artist hands out nude drawings of Beth, and the sausage king impresses Beth's museum boss by donating art.
 
When In Rome
15. Beth and Nick
Nick also lives in New York and the couple meet again there and start seeing each other.
 
Beth's sister tells her about the fountain legend and the spell it has cast.
 
Beth and Nick fall in love until Beth finds a poker chip in Nick's apartment.
 
When In Rome
16. Beth holding chip
 
Beth isn't sure Nick really loves her or is under the spell.
 
The sister tells Beth that she must give the coins back to the men to break the spells.
 
Beth invites the four other men to her apartment to give them their coins back.
 
When In Rome
17. Beth confronts her four men
Unfortunately Beth's museum assistant was visiting her and took the coins so she can't return them.
 
The four men and Beth drive a small car to the museum where Beth is to manage a benefit event.
 
Beth returns the coins to the four men and wishes them well.
 
Somehow a pre-euro Italian coin is returned to the model.
 
When In Rome
18. An Italian coin
The coin is an Italian pre-euro 500 lire bi-metallic coin. Coins with this obverse design were minted from 1996 to 1999 with different reverses each year.
 
Beth sees Nick and asks him about the chip.
 
When In Rome
19. Nick explains the chip
He tells her that he never threw any chips into the Roman fountain as he had lost them in a poker game to the Catholic priest who performed the original wedding.
 
The couple head to Rome and Beth throws the chip into the fountain freeing the priest from the spell.
 
It takes a while but the couple are married in Rome.
 
After the wedding Beth and Nick head for the famous fountain.
 
When In Rome
20. Love
Cast, Directors, Writers:
 
Kristen Bell as Beth
Josh Duhamel as Nick
Danny DeVito as Al
Will Arnett as Antonio
Jon Heder as Lance
Dax Shepard as Gale
 
Director: Mark Steven Johnson
Writers: David Diamond, David Weissman
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