Beth (Kristen Bell) is a curator at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. She is desperate to impress her boss, Celeste (Anjelica Huston), who has tailored her brusque management style on Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada.

Celeste puts Beth in charge of the annual Circle of Gold Gala with a stark warning that should anything go wrong, it will be the end of a burgeoning career.

In the middle of preparations, Beth travels to Rome to support her younger sister, Joan (Alexis Dziena), who is marrying an Italian stallion (Luca Calvani).

The curator is instantly attracted to accident-prone sports writer Nick (Josh Duhamel), only to see the hunk kissing another woman.

Feeling depressed, Beth wades into the famed Fountain of Love and drunkenly snatches up a handful of coins and a poker chip, which have been tossed into the waters.

As if by magic, the men who threw the tokens into the fountain all fall under Beth’s spell and they vigorously pursue her.

To Beth’s delight, Nick is one of her potential paramours but so too are artist Antonio (Will Arnett), egotistical model Gale (Dax Shepard), street magician Lance (Jon Heder) and businessman Al (Danny De-Vito), who proudly tells Beth: “Encased meat is my life’s work. I’m a curator... of sausage.”

When in Rome makes poor use of a talented cast.

We feel embarrassed for Arnett, De Vito and co, whose characters are two-dimensional and humourless, and Duhamel’s sports writer might be easy on the eye but he has no personality aside from a knack for walking into trees or falling down holes.

When Beth rejects Nick late in the film, we hope in vain she has come to her senses.

Alas, the script dictates she must settle for second best.