Reviews
You, Me & Tuscany
Personally, I’ve always been a huge advocate for rom-coms. There’s just something about the good ones that breeds an endless sense of joy that courses through my entire body. And while the supply of rom-coms, particularly on streaming, hasn’t dwindled, the quality definitely has. So going into You, Me & Tuscany, expectations were high that we might be treated to a future classic. Alas, those hopes and dreams were severely misplaced in a disappointing misfire, although the writing was probably already on the wall from the moment they revealed the painfully cringey tagline of “She came for the pasta and got lost with the sauce.”
You, Me & Tuscany is directed by Kat Coiro, who most will remember from the equally disappointing rom-com Marry Me from 2022, and brought to life via a script from Ryan Engle, who is commonly known for his solid action writing. This marks his first venture into romance and comedy and if this is a true display of his abilities in those areas, it’s probably best that he sticks to action.
The film follows Anna (Halle Bailey), a down-on-her-luck professional house sitter whose dream of becoming a chef in Italy was derailed by the untimely death of her mother a year ago. Now on the verge of homelessness, with only a few hundred dollars to her name and a plane ticket to Italy her mum bought before she died, she’s about to give up on everything. That’s before bumping into Matteo (Lorenzo de Moor), a suave and handsome Italian man at a bar where he boasts about his life in real estate and how he happens to own a villa in Tuscany that is sitting empty.
After hopping on a plane to Tuscany the very next day and finding the hotels fully booked, Anna does what all sane individuals would do and breaks into Matteo’s villa to stay. It was never going to be that easy though, as she’s caught in the act by Matteo’s family and, in the heat of the moment, to avoid arrest has no choice but to pretend to be his fiancée. As wild and far-fetched as that is, things get a whole lot more complicated and convoluted when Michael (Regé-Jean Page) enters the scene, who just so happens to be Matteo’s adopted brother, and the advertised love story begins to unfold.
As cheesy as the premise sounds, it would have been easy to get on board with had it not been for the insanely predictable nature of the entire plot. There isn’t a single curveball thrown to even make the audience think it could be heading in a different direction. Instead, it feels as though it deliberately ticks off every trope in the book, borrowing plot points from better films as it sluggishly goes through the motions towards its inevitable climax.
There are glimpses in You, Me & Tuscany of it veering away from those tropes, leaning into the absurdity of its premise and even feeling self-aware in moments, and without a doubt those are the highlights. However, they are few and far between and it’s abundantly clear that the story tries to evoke emotion, particularly in the final act, that never quite lands.
Of course, it was always going to play into the clichés of the genre. It makes no secret of that in its marketing and, admittedly, some of those clichés are great. The endless expansive shots of the beautiful Tuscan countryside, accompanied by catchy love songs, are genuinely enjoyable. The slow-motion water shots of Page’s ripped physique are bound to have audiences begging for more, so clearly there are elements that have been thought out and executed well, which makes it all the more frustrating just how poorly other aspects come together.
That is down in part to the central love story, which is not given nearly enough time to feel organic. Michael, as the main love interest, is only introduced around the halfway point, so from there on it feels as if the film is playing catch-up and doesn’t allow for any natural chemistry between the leads to develop. Instead, everything feels incredibly rushed and the inevitable hurdles are resolved almost as quickly as they appear, ensuring that no real sense of risk is present, with every twist feeling completely telegraphed from the outset.
The score, composed by John Debney, would not be out of place in a Disney princess live-action remake. That is not inherently a bad thing, in fact it is quite an enjoyable element, but it feels completely out of place here and makes the film resemble a Hallmark-style rom-com, which is evidently not what it was aiming for. The same could also be said for some of the dialogue from the lacklustre script. There are multiple moments where I was left scratching my head after hearing lines that simply would not be said by a human being and had me squirming in my seat.
Halle Bailey, and to a certain extent Regé-Jean Page, have been dealt a bad hand with what they have to work with, but their lack of believable on-screen chemistry is where the film falters most. This is not helped by Bailey’s line delivery, which often feels like she’s about to burst into song, as if she were in High School Musical, rather than a grounded romantic story. Page is commanding in his role and shows he has the potential to lead a rom-com in the future, but together they never quite convince as a couple.
Undoubtedly though, the supporting cast save You, Me & Tuscany from being a total disaster. In more limited roles, Aziza Scott and Marco Calvani steal every scene they appear in and provide several laugh-out-loud moments that are bound to please audiences. In fact, had they been given more screen time instead of some of the leads, this review may have been entirely different.
Of course, going into You, Me & Tuscany, it isn’t expected to be a profound film with messaging at its core that will resonate long after its runtime, but at the same time, a film like this should not be as completely forgettable as it is. What could have been the latest great rom-com sadly descends into utter mediocrity that doesn’t even justify the time and expense of a trip to the cinema.