“You, Me & Tuscany”
“You, Me & Tuscany” (105 min, Rated PG-13 for strong language and sexual material) 6 out of 10
“You, Me & Tuscany” is a film that really wants you to like…to expand your romantic inner-fiber, tickle your funny bone with rom-com humor and nostalgia this film purports to achieve…but falls a bit short. It delivers most of the goods – attractive young single woman…attractive young single man…romantic, dreamlike setting in Italy, etc. It has all the right ingredients to be a classic rom-com, but, in this case, perhaps too much of a good thing spoils the rush-to-romance fairytale.
After scoring it big in the live-action adaptation of “The Little Mermaid,” Halle Bailey stars as Anna, a young impressionable chef-wannabe in NYC whose mom passed before she was able to finish culinary school. Now housesitting to make ends meet, Anna, is depicted as a hot mess of insecurity. In one of those “meet-cute” moments, she bumps into Matteo (Lorenzo de Moor), a handsome Italian man at a hotel bar. They strike up a conversation, and after a lot of cocktails, agrees to a one-night stand – that is before he falls asleep from exhaustion (he’s a traveling businessman). Before he vanishes into memory, he invites her to visit him at his vineyard and luxurious villa in Tuscany.
You can’t beat that for romance, eh? Anna definitely has an adventurous spirit about her and impulsively scrounges up enough money to buy a one-way ticket to Italy thinking Matteo will be there. Well, he’s still traveling, but when she’s discovered inside his spacious villa by his family, she fabricates a lie that they’re engaged. They fall for the deception and warmly embrace her as a pending new family member. However, things get more complicated when Anna falls for Matteo’s British-born adopted brother, Michael (Rege-Jean Page), who’s even more handsome than Matteo.
It’s no surprise Matteo’s family owns a quaint restaurant, a perfect place for the budding chef-to-be-Anna to possibly fit in, at first as Matteo’s bride (?), but perhaps as Michael’s flame. Regardless, it’s looking like her on-a-whim trip to Italy may have fulfilled her destiny for romance…and permanence. Right on cue, Matteo arrives and is willing to go along with the farce Anna has cooked up until he realizes Anna and Michael have fallen in love – and it’s after a disastrous first meeting.
You can see the mechanics of the phony portrayals and intermingling relationships becoming more complicated, and messier by the minute with Anna slowly trapping herself into confessing her lies while Matteo turns out to be a womanizing jerk and Michael turning out to be Anna’s knight in shining armor…the man of her dreams. It’s fairytale story that begs your willing suspension of disbelief, a story filled with good intentions that may exploit the good name of passion, but gets bogged down in Italian stereotypes…squabbling, eating, drinking wine, romance…more drinking!
The poignancy of this wholesome fantasy-romance may be asking too much from pure romantics, but in all deference to the screenplay by Ryan Engle and direction by Kat Coiro, it almost expects you to accept the film on those fluffy terms…a bed or roses for Anna to find her dreamboat man – and in one of the sexiest areas of the world no less. Though there is a clear lack of chemistry between Anna and Michael, it’s compensated by the idyllic charm of the spectacular landscapes of Tuscany, lush vineyards, lavish villas and quaint villages.
That stuff alone may be enough for most filmgoers, and who am I to disagree – just go with it and enjoy the heartstrings of lovers being plucked amid the romantic background of Tuscany. “You, Me & Tuscany” opened at theaters on April 10.
The post ‘Tuscany’ Offers Scenic Charm, But Fails To Ignite Real Sparks first appeared on Journal & Topics Media Group.
