‘You, Me & Tuscany’ Offers Comfort but Little Flavor

Whatever the Italian board of tourism paid into You, Me & Tuscany, they got their money’s worth. As an advertisement for the title region, it will make you want to book a ticket before the credits roll. But as a romance, Kat Coiro’s movie has no interest in anything beyond the bare minimum of what the genre requires. Any place the movie could offer a bit of bite or personality, it quickly retreats, afraid that the audience will be unable to handle anything spicier than a bare set of abs. That doesn’t necessarily make You, Me & Tuscany a bad movie, but it’s also not much of a showcase for its performers, instead leaving them as cardboard cutouts against stunning vistas.

Anna (Halle Bailey) is in a tailspin. After her mom passed away from illness, Anna gave up on her dreams of being a chef and instead is bouncing between housesitting jobs. When she meets Matteo (Lorenzo de Moor) in a hotel bar, she learns that his family owns a villa in Tuscany that he never uses. Anna, spurred by the thought of finally visiting Tuscany, decides to head out there only to discover all the rooms are booked because of a major festival. She decides to crash at the villa only to be mistaken for Matteo’s fiancée. Anna plans to play along with the ruse until her flight leaves in five days, but ends up falling for Matteo’s adopted brother, Michael (Regé-Jean Page).

The film makes a major misstep in its opening that sets the tone for the rest of the movie. We see Anna acting rich and glamorous, but whoops! She’s actually wearing the clothes of the wealthy homeowner she’s housesitting for. It’s a fun introduction that shows Anna as mischievous, but then we get a record-scratch, “Here’s how I got into this mess,” that explains her whole sympathetic backstory. On the one hand, you’re trying to get the audience on Anna’s side. But on the other hand, that’s what star charisma is for. Perhaps the writers felt that they didn’t want to play into any negative stereotype, but the result is that the character lacks an edge or really anywhere to grow beyond, “I should settle down and find a new family.” For You, Me & Tuscany, it’s more important to make Anna blandly pleasant than alluring or interesting.

“Blandly pleasant,” spills over into the rest of the movie. Page is fine, but the role asks little more of him than to flash his pearly white teeth and speak with his sexy, roguish voice. No one has really done the work here of creating character beyond the necessary conflicts of the story, so Anna and Michael falling for each other feels benign. Their relationship isn’t defined by anything unique or interesting. There’s a montage where they drink wine from Michael’s vineyard, but there’s little confessional or revealing that says these are two, fully realized human beings. Instead, they’re both hot, and that’s good enough.

And in some cases, that is good enough! If you’re looking for a comforting romance movie, then You, Me & Tuscanyis that film. There’s nothing it does particularly wrong, and sometimes, like a big bowl of pasta from a chain restaurant, you’re looking to be sated rather than excited. While I personally wish the movie were a bit more interesting and the lead actors were given more to work with, Coiro does meet the bar of a serviceable romance with all the tropes and escapism fans of the genre expect. And even if the story doesn’t do anything for you, no one can deny the glamour, allure, and warmth of the setting. 

You, Me & Tuscany opens in theaters on April 10^th.