Courtesy of Common Studios
It’s laborious to get something unique made nowadays, not to mention a romantic comedy. Watching “You, Me & Tuscany,” you may assume it’s tailored from a breezy novel or impressed by a well-thumbed paperback pulled from an airport rack. Surprisingly, it’s not. Kat Coiro’s movie is an unique, written alongside Ryan and Kristin Engle, and that alone earns it a sure baseline goodwill. In a fractured moviegoing ecosystem the place protected bets and recognizable IP dominate, a innocent, star-driven rom-com can really feel like sufficient, a minimum of on paper. That’s very true with two interesting leads behind the wheel, Rege-Jean Web page and Halle Bailey, each of whom arrive with built-in audiences and simple display screen presence.
The film is aware of precisely who it’s for. That is the cinematic equal of a seaside learn, the sort of shiny escapism folks devour on a airplane. The acquainted components are all current: a wonderful international locale, an initially prickly romantic dynamic, a sizzling and emotionally unavailable love curiosity, and an aggressive suspension of disbelief. The outside photographs of Tuscany look attractive, the persons are lovely, and the story unfolds precisely as anticipated. The issue shouldn’t be that “You, Me & Tuscany” sticks to the components, however that it hardly ever does something ingenious with it.
Coiro is clearly not aiming for realism. There’s a sitcom-like power to the entire manufacturing, strengthened by inside units trying as if it had been shot largely on a soundstage. That tone may need labored higher if the script leaned more durable into heightened comedy, however as an alternative it performs all the pieces by the e-book, even because the plot turns into more and more ridiculous. Bailey, charming and luminous as ever, performs Anna, a culinary faculty dropout whose goals of touring to Italy and immersing herself in meals tradition had been formed by her late mom. After her mom dies from most cancers, Anna loses her momentum and winds up beginning her personal housesitting enterprise for the rich elites in New York Metropolis, going via the motions and quietly mourning a life she by no means fairly began.
Enter Matteo, performed by Marco Cavani, whom Anna meet cutes at a bar. In a tidy little bit of rom-com comfort, he lives in Tuscany and simply occurs to be on the town on enterprise. He encourages Anna to lastly take the Italy journey she and her mom deliberate. When Anna arrives in Tuscany, it simply so occurs to coincide with a large annual competition, the sort that solely exists in films the place timing bends effortlessly to serve the plot. You may virtually hear the mechanism clicking into place.
Issues solely get extra strained from there. Unable to discover a place to remain, Anna sneaks into Matteo’s villa for the evening, solely to get up to his household interrogating her. In a panic, she claims to be Matteo’s fiancé. Earlier than there’s even time to course of such a bombshell, the complete prolonged household descends on the villa, keen to fulfill and welcome her into their orbit. The entire sequence is infused with “My Huge Fats Greek Marriage ceremony” power, an affiliation the movie leans into even more durable due to a cameo from Nia Vardalos herself.
That is additionally the place the precise romance begins. Matteo’s brother Michael, performed by Web page, enters the image because the rugged, soft-spoken counterpoint to Matteo’s polished appeal. Michael is blue-collar, emotionally reserved, and blessed with a jawline that does him no favors by way of subtlety. He and Anna rapidly develop a rapport that the movie needs us to learn as electrical. When she asks him how such a hunk of a person shouldn’t be married, his reply is pure rom-com shorthand: “As a result of I at all times fall for the mistaken lady.”
Moments like that reinforce simply how rigidly the film follows the style playbook. The extra you interrogate the story, the shakier it turns into. Anna insists the household not inform Matteo she has arrived unannounced, and apparently nobody thinks of texting him. The household additionally owns a wildly profitable restaurant that conveniently turns into the place the place Anna reconnects with cooking and, by extension, her mom. Later, the patriarch suffers a head damage on the eve of the competition’s large finale, leaving Anna as the one particular person able to saving the restaurant and main the cost. She has 5 hours to create a completely new menu. References to “The Bear” are made, simply in case you might be questioning which culinary fantasy universe we’re working in.
In the meantime, Anna and Michael fall laborious and quick. They alternate smitten glances, run via vineyards as sprinklers activate on cue, and kiss passionately towards postcard-perfect backdrops. That is all commonplace challenge for the style, and to Coiro’s credit score, she shouldn’t be pretending that is something apart from a consolation film. Nonetheless, there comes a degree when appeal alone shouldn’t be sufficient. The movie retains asking the viewers to just accept one comfort after one other with out ever grounding the characters in something resembling emotional actuality. Ultimately, the contrivances pile as much as the purpose the place staying invested turns into a chore.
The film is at its greatest within the kitchen. Watching meals get ready, plated, and shared carries real heat, and Bailey sells Anna’s rediscovery of goal extra convincingly there than wherever else. The movie additionally livens up every time Anna’s pal Claire, performed by Aziza Scott, leaves voice messages from New York that act as a operating commentary on the absurdity of all of it. One voicemail jokingly warns that Anna is headed towards the Italian model of “Get Out,” and it is among the few moments that acknowledges simply how unusual this case really is.
Finally, “You, Me & Tuscany” appears to counsel that mendacity your method right into a household and a way of belonging shouldn’t be solely acceptable, however oddly empowering. When the cooking stops and the surroundings fades into the background, the film turns into curiously airless. The romance by no means deepens sufficient to rise above the contrivances, and too many jokes revolve round how good-looking Web page is fairly than constructing character or pressure. You’ll know whether or not this film is your velocity throughout the first fifteen minutes.
“You, Me & Tuscany” is satisfactory, nice, and infrequently diverting. However by the point the credit rolled, I used to be greater than able to get off the prepare.
YOU, ME & TUSCANY is now enjoying in theaters.