THE STORY – A free-spirited, young cook named Anna makes a brash decision to become a squatter in an abandoned Tuscan villa owned by a man she barely knows, leading to a whole new world of adventure, lies, and love when she meets Michael, the homeowner’s cousin.
THE CAST – Halle Bailey, Regé-Jean Page, Lorenzo de Moor, Isabella Ferrari, Aziza Scott, Marco Calvani & Nia Vardalos
THE TEAM – Kat Coiro (Director), Ryan Engle & Kristin Engle (Writers)
THE RUNNING TIME – 105 Minutes
Romantic comedies have been cinematically scarce for so long that each new one feels like a potential resuscitation of the genre. Whether or not they were any good, films like “Anyone But You” and “The Idea of You” (I enjoyed them both) were like mana from heaven for rom-com lovers just because of the lack of options. “You, Me & Tuscany,” the latest attempt by Hollywood to make rom-coms work again, glows with the warmth of nostalgia for the genre’s glory days. Thoroughly old-fashioned where others have attempted to be contemporary, Kat Coiro’s film is so full of good vibes that it’s very easy to enjoy, even if the old tropes it so wholeheartedly embraces make it difficult to love as much as the genre’s classics.
It may look like Anna (a luminous Halle Bailey) is living a perfect life, but it’s a lie. She dropped out of culinary school to take care of her sick mother, and after burying her, Anna became a professional housesitter, slipping into the lifestyles of her rich clients and putting her own on indefinite hold. But after being fired by her latest client and without a place to live, she slips into the bar at the hotel where her bestie, Claire (Aziza Scott), works to charge her phone, and meets the charming Italian Matteo (Lorenzo de Moor). They share their life stories, and it turns out that Matteo’s family runs a restaurant in Tuscany, where Anna and her mom (also a chef) had planned to travel after her culinary school graduation. Matteo felt forced into the business by his family and ran away to work in international real estate. He’s not returning to his villa back home any time soon, but he encourages Anna to take the trip, and she does… only to find that all the hotels for miles around are booked due to a famous Summer Festival. In desperate need of a bed, she sneaks into Matteo’s empty villa. Still, she is awoken the next morning by Matteo’s mother, Gabriella (Isabella Ferrari), and grandmother, Alessia (Stehania Casini), cleaning the place. Rather than go to jail for trespassing, Anna lets them believe that she is engaged to Matteo. Before she knows what’s happening, the entire family has embraced her as one of their own, eager for her to bring Matteo back into the fold. Anna knows she should come clean and leave, but there’s something about Matteo’s handsome, vineyard-owner cousin, Michael (Regé-Jean Page), that keeps her around. Will this be the push Anna needs to find the courage to start living her own life?
Ryan Engle’s screenplay takes all the ingredients of classic rom-coms and presents them in as self-aware a manner as possible without becoming a parody of itself. The surfeit of good humor goes a long way towards making the film so much fun to watch, especially in the hands of an ensemble of vibrant character actors. Marco Calvani’s taxi driver, who swoons over the romance of Anna’s story while encouraging her to tell the truth, Stella Pecollo’s gregarious sister-in-law, and Scott’s underutilized but sassily hilarious Claire provide all the personality that the film lacks elsewhere, keeping the film as fizzy and refreshing as an Aperol spritz on a hot day. While the film leans heavily into Italian clichés and standard rom-com tropes, it usually does so with a bit of a wink to the audience, as when the opera greeting the Italian sunrise turns out to be the villa’s groundskeeper, or when a vineyard tour crosses paths with Michael and Anna after they’ve gotten doused by sprinklers. Director Kat Coiro keeps this self-aware humor in check, ensuring that it complements but never overtakes the central romance, which is as bland and formulaic as rom-com tradition dictates.
That doesn’t mean that the romance between Anna and Michael isn’t well-written, just that the characters themselves don’t pop as much as the supporting cast. A pair of well-defined, engaging leads usually separates the great rom-coms from the good ones, and while “You, Me & Tuscany” never reaches the heights of, say, “When Harry Met Sally…” in that regard, Page and Bailey do everything they can to make the romance work. Page has been a charmer since he first rode in on that horse in “Bridgerton,” and he’s damn near irresistible in his first big-screen romantic lead role. His inner bitterness (used so well in last year’s sexy spy thriller “Black Bag”) serves as a strong balance to Bailey’s sunny disposition, and watching him slowly soften in her presence is just as swoon-worthy as his enviably lithe body. Bailey, freed from the crushing weight of international expectations and CGI of her first big-screen lead role in Disney’s live-action “The Little Mermaid,” proves to be an ideal rom-com heroine. Her soft, open features and sweet nature make her instantly endearing and easy to root for. Even when Anna makes bad decisions, Bailey always makes them feel grounded in palpable desperation – to not get in trouble, to make something of her life, to feel the love of family again – in a way that feels understandable. You’re always rooting for her, even when she makes a mess of things, which is a key component to a successful rom-com. While the screenplay’s attempts to give Anna a spikier personality come too far apart for them to be completely believable, Bailey’s radiant, open-hearted charisma covers it well. She glows throughout, earning the audience’s sympathy early on and gently guiding them through the character’s journey in a way only a true movie star can. She’s a rom-com Mary Poppins: Practically perfect in every way.
Asking for such perfection from the whole film might be too much, but “You, Me & Tuscany” gets about as close as it can. The film embraces the more grating parts of romantic comedies just as much as the more enjoyable parts, leaning hard on Italian clichés and making sure everything is as big and broad as possible. While the film’s winking self-awareness mitigates the more over-the-top elements, it can’t fully erase the film’s generic nature. It looks beautiful, with sun-dappled Italian vistas and plentiful food porn, but that’s par for the course for any romance taking place in Italy. Those images, especially when combined with the soulful soundtrack and heartfelt performances, give the film a warm, comforting feeling of a familial embrace. That and the self-aware good humor keep the film enjoyable even as the bland central romance, formulaic plotting, and loud supporting performances keep it from entering the realm of new rom-com classics. “You, Me & Tuscany” has all the right ingredients; the recipe’s just a little off. Throw in a little more spice and add some depth to the central romance, and the next time Page and Bailey do this together, they might just make a classic.
