On the weekend my bestie – Carly – and I went into Village Crown Casino to see You, Me & Tuscany, a new American rom-com directed by Kat Coiro, written by husband-and-wife writing team Ryan Engle & Kristin Engle, and produced by Will Packer (responsible for the 2017 hit, Girls Trip);
When a woman crashes at an empty Italian villa, posing as the owner’s fiancée, she discovers an unexpected romance that could transform her life.
It stars Halle Bailey as protagonist Anna – she is one half of Chloe x Halle, an American R&B duo formed with her older sister, Chloe Bailey. Halle has gone more into the acting side of things nowadays, and her big breakout acting role was in the live-action Little Mermaid of 2023 (though I’ve loved her and her sister since Grown-ish).
She stars opposite British actor Regé-Jean Page, who found huge fame as Simon Basset, Duke of Hastings in the first season of TV show Bridgerton – and has since had a weird relationship with the fans of that show, given that he decided to leave after season one and not return for small cameos in subsequent seasons;
His absence has – weirdly – been the source of much-speculation, and a large portion of Bridgerton fans take bizarre pleasure in thinking he got “too big for his boots,” and hasn’t quite found matching fame since departing the historical-romance drama. And maybe it’s true that his turn in a Dungeons & Dragons movie didn’t launch the franchise, like he’d probably hoped – and he hasn’t had a ton of roles since Bridgerton – but he is returning to TV as Butch Cassidy in a new ‘Butch & Sundance’ Amazon Series. I mostly think it’s delusional of fans to jump to the conclusion of big-headedness on an actor’s part, instead of some introspection and looking at the ways the fandom can be toxic towards its diverse cast, and more likely; actors don’t want any part of putting themselves in those abusive para-social relationships anymore?!;
Actually, weird relationships to racist fandoms is something that Bailey and Page have in common, given that she also bore the brunt of diverse-casting backlash for The Little Mermaid – something that has happened repeatedly, and Disney in particular continues to never adequately protect their actors from said backlash;
A strange but unsurprising connection for the two of them to have;
And sort of sad that the discussions aren’t abating with their star-turns in You, Me & Tuscany, but are instead taking on yet another bizarre discourse around representation.
To be clear; I was keen to see You, Me & Tuscany as soon as I heard about it. Given that I love rom-coms, am a fan of Bailey and Page separately, and would rather poke my eye out than see the new Mario movie for my friend-date excursion.
But what really guaranteed I’d go and see the film was a discussion that began on threads; prompted by Writer, Director, and Actor – Nina Lee;
This has been all but confirmed by Tuscany producer Will Packer;
And OUR expanded on how Tuscany is impacting Nina Lee’s movie;
A lot of people have noted how unfair it is to put this burden – the future of Black filmmaking and cinema?! – onto the shoulders of audiences and this one movie … especially amidst a cost-of-living crisis (albeit; one made worse by America and Israel’s illegal war) – it’s hardly a time for people to be going to the cinemas in droves, spending money they don’t have;
And it does seem like a particularly evil cycle of late-stage capitalism;
Especially to put this burden on a film that didn’t have a Black director, or script-writers – and is being given this task because of its producer and lead actors (who, as discussed, have themselves already borne too much brunt in these and adjacent debates).
Not to mention; the future of cinema is in danger, and to suggest it’s make-or-break for Black cinema specifically is leaving out a few key details of the current shrinking film studio landscape;
Not to mention this monopolisation is already leading to really bizarre and bad studio decisions to appease oligarchs as opposed to audiences;
It’s particularly galling to see all this emphasis placed on You, Me & Tuscany to save Black cinema – even after Ryan Coogler’s Sinners just had historic wins at the Oscars and Box Office;
So, look – I’m going to tell you what I thought of the Tuscany rom-com but I am also going to say … it’s a damn rom-com and the whole reason I went to see it was to have a good time!
Period.
End of.
And that’s the No. 1 reason you should go see it too;
I really enjoyed the movie! Especially because it has one of my favourite tropes; fake engagement, and felt like an updated take on the 1995 Sandra Bullock rom-com; While You Were Sleeping;
A Subway clerk falls for a comatose man’s brother.
Admittedly; minus the comatose man (instead there’s a chance-encounter with an Italian man in New York, who happens to mention running away from his family and responsibilities in Tuscany, and leaving a beautiful villa sitting empty in his escape). Instead of a subway clerk, there’s Anna – a would-be chef still reeling with grief from the death of her mother, making poor decisions and stalling her life by being a transient house-sitter … who makes further poor decisions by flying to Tuscany on a whim, and through happenstance (dubious) deciding the Italian man’s empty villa will do very nicely for her vacation. There is misunderstandings with the absent man’s family as to her martial status with this stranger, and there’s a cousin-brother (brotha) who poses more of a temptation … like I said; While You Were Sleeping just with more exotic location, and less coma.
The storyline is silly because it’s meant to be! It’s rom-com, trope-led shenanigans that could have also taken a smaller budget, North American-location, and plausibly been billed on the Hallmark channel or straight to streaming somewhere else … whether that entices you or not, is up to the individual;
But it’s fun!
The location really sells it too (shot between Rome and Tuscany) many a panning shot had me and Carly breathlessly ooh’ing and aah’ing over the villa, towns, vistas, vineyards, and mountains on display.
But what absolutely sells this are the leads – Halle Bailey as Anna, Regé-Jean Page as Michael. They are both gorgeous – and they soak up that Italian light until they look otherworldly and ethereal. Bailey is charming in the role, and considering she’s playing a Gen-Z Goldilocks squatter that’s really saying something, that she manages to get audiences onside despite making some ludicrously bad decisions.
Regé-Jean Page had the people in our cinema giggling and you could practically feel their impulse to gleefully kick their feet too. This man was built for rom-coms, and it’s even nicer to see him excelling in this movie role, more than he did in the Bridgerton TV series – where his character came hampered by a lot of personal baggage and brooding. Here he’s cheeky, funny and charming and absolutely has audiences in the palm of his wine-pouring hand.
It did feel like there was another dimension to the story that was edited out; Michael alludes to him and his cousin-brother Matteo having grown up as a trio with Matteo’s ex, Isabella – and Michael hinting that he’s always been second-best in the romantic stakes to Matteo … I wondered if there was meant to be more of a historic love-triangle that Anna has unwittingly stumbled into, but that probably put too much complication into the mix.
This film was a little bit cheesy, very beautiful, and highly entertaining. The location definitely elevates it form other rom-coms, and maybe that’s also giving it undue credit, for what would have otherwise been a pretty mediocre movie … but I enjoyed it anyway!
AND if the Tuscan setting does have you pining for more Italian romances, can I just hype one of my spectacular authors that I represent as literary agent, for a sec?
All of Jenna Lo Bianco’s romance novels are Italian heart-stoppers; utterly fun and fabulous! They all have big rom-com trope elements, and if you want a read that is especially spicy, may I recommend the latest release; Love, Al Dente?!
These are all especially brilliant on audiobook;
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