Shadows on the Wall | You, Me & Tuscany

You, Me & Tuscany

dir Kat Coiro
scr Ryan Engle
prd Will Packer, Johanna Byer
with Halle Bailey, Rege-Jean Page, Marco Calvani, Lorenzo de Moor, Isabella Ferrari, Stefania Casini, Aziza Scott, Desiree Popper, Stella Pecollo, Paolo Sassanelli, Tommaso Cassissa, Emanuele Pacca
release US/UK 10.Apr.26
26/US Universal 1h44

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This is one of those guilty pleasure romantic comedies that keeps us laughing and sighing, even as its corny story heads down a well-worn path. It helps that the setting is drop-dead gorgeous, as are the cast members. So even if it's obvious how the plot's various messes will be tidied up, director Kat Coiro keeps us happily distracted by sexy people, sunny Italian scenery and delicious food.

After her mother dies, Anna (Bailey) loses herself, dropping out of culinary school and living other people's lives as a housesitter. After she's sacked, she meets the hot Matteo (de Moor) in a bar, learning that he has an empty villa in Tuscany. And she has an unused airplane ticket. So off she goes, squatting in his gorgeous home in a small village. But Matteo's mother (Ferrari) and grandmother (Casini) assume she's his fiancee, welcoming her into the restaurant-owning family, where she meets Matteo's even hotter half-British cousin Michael (Page), who runs the family winery.

Because the plot is so familiar (did someone mention While You Were Sleeping?), it's unsurprising that Matteo returns unexpectedly, creating further twists and turns that play up how families put pressure on younger generations. And there are also the usual complications, including Matteo's sneering ex (Popper) and the fact that the entire family clearly adores Anna even more than they love the estranged Matteo. So the way she and Michael pretend not to be attracted to each other feels like a minor obstacle. Amid all of this, a steady flow of glorious food, wine and locations is simplistically delightful.

Even with the central romantic sauciness, two side characters walk off with the whole movie. As Matteo's sister, Pecollo fills every moment with gleefully mischievous innuendo, and Calvani is a blast of pure joy as a micro-taxi driver who befriends Anna. Everyone else dives into the nuttiness with gusto, with Page and de Moor adding the requisite shirtless beefcake moments to keep Bailey's engagingly plucky Anna on her toes.

Meanwhile, veterans Ferrari, Casini and Sassanelli (as Matteo's dad) quietly elevate everything. They provide a badly needed blast of deeper meaning in this otherwise fluffy romp, grounding the film with generational observations and genuinely moving emotions. So amid the silliness, the movie also offers a rather beautiful reminder that a sense of family history, wherever we might find it, is what connects us to the world around us.

themes, language, violence 23.Mar.26

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