Halle Bailey and Regé-Jean Page fight and fall in love in You, Me & Tuscany, a romcom that borrows from many other romcoms.
You, Me & Tuscany, a new romcom in time for spring, follows so many hallmarks of the genre you can trace where each part was copied and pasted from. But for all its adherence to tropes at the expense of bringing something new to the table, it feels like a throwback to a bygone era of movies.
After her mom dies, Anna (Halle Bailey) throws in the towel on her lifelong dreams of becoming a chef and traveling to Italy. Finding work as a housesitter, she finds solace in pretending she lives the posh lives of the people who hire her. Or at least, we’re told this multiple times during the film; Anna’s best friend Claire (Aziza Scott) repeatedly points out Anna’s passive approach to life, but it’s inconsistent with what we know of her. Would a passive person do anything Anna does for entire runtime of this film? Her dream of visiting Italy comes true in a way that only a persistent, bold person could make happen.
When in Rome…or Tuscany.
Anna has a chance meeting with Matteo (Lorenzo de Moor), a handsome, dashing Italian who owns a villa in Tuscany. He travels around the world for work and hasn’t been home in over a year. After an evening of chatting, Matteo tells Anna she can visit the villa anytime. With that, Anna takes it upon herself to go to Italy and stay in Matteo’s villa. He said she should visit anytime, right? Totally not a polite thing to say in the moment? Surely nothing too crazy can happen when you fly across the world to become a squatter in a near-stranger’s house.
Photo Credit: Universal Pictures
While in the villa, Anna tries on an abandoned engagement ring she finds in a junk drawer. Romcom tropes dictate that this is where the plot kicks into gear, and kick into gear it does. Matteo’s family sees Anna with the engagement ring and concludes she’s Matteo’s fiancee. She’s immediately embraced by the family, from his adoring mother (Isabella Ferrari) to his raunchy sister (Stella Peccolo). The only one skeptical of the whole thing is Matteo’s handsome cousin Michael (Regé-Jean Page). Anna and Michael get off on the wrong foot when they first meet, trading barbs and sizing each other up as barriers to their own happiness. Anna won’t back down from her false story, while Michael has kept the family together after Matteo left town. And before you know it, Michael emerges as a genuine love interest for Anna.
Something borrowed.
If You, Me & Tuscany sounds like a retread of While You Were Sleeping but in Italy, it absolutely is. But who can resist a movie so determined to show off its beautiful setting and rich culinary history? When Matteo’s family urges Anna to work with them at the family restaurant, Anna revives her long-abandoned dreams of being a chef. These glimpses of personality and depth hint at a well-roundedness that You, Me & Tuscany wants to achieve, even if it doesn’t reach the aspirations of the romcoms it draws from.
Bailey and Page are so individually charming as actors that they feel well-cast, even in underdeveloped roles. Bailey, so radiant and lively in The Little Mermaid, is so earnest and endearing as Anna that you can almost forgive her for being a serial trespasser and liar. Page, memorable for Bridgerton despite leaving the show in 2021, is given little to do but read lines with swagger and take off his shirt. The film coasts on that for more than seems necessary. Why take a charismatic actor and give him a part with so little development? Despite Anna’s inconsistencies and Michael’s lack of character depth, Bailey and Page infuse them with enough warmth and charm that you can’t help but root for them.
The bottom line.
Watching You, Me & Tuscany is like recreating a recipe you’ve eaten a million times; There’s nothing new or revelatory here. Each scene and plot development feels lifted right out of the romcom playbook, from While You Were Sleeping to Maid in Manhattan to Under the Tuscan Sun. But there’s a genuine love for the genre evident in Kat Coiro‘s directing and Ryan Engle‘s screenplay. The art of the big-screen romcom has been so neglected in the era of streaming. In times like these, romcoms are cinematic comfort food, like the dishes Anna so lovingly creates with Matteo’s family. There’s something charming about movies this earnest and cliched still being made when we used to get a half-dozen of them every year. We could all use a little cheese now and then.
You, Me & Tuscany is now playing in theaters everywhere. Watch the trailer here.
Images courtesy of Universal Pictures. Read more articles by Claire Di Maio here.
REVIEW RATING
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You, Me & Tuscany - 6/10
6/10
Claire was once asked in elementary school why her go-to question was always, “Watch anything good lately?” It’s still her go-to question, because she loves hearing what other people are passionate about. She often sacrifices sleep in the hopes that she will one day clear her to-watch and to-read lists (a futile effort so far).
