The rolling hills of the Italian countryside look unreal in the fumbling romantic comedy “You, Me and Tuscany,” which riffs on white women-led wanderlust movies like “Eat, Pray, Love” (2010) and “Under the Tuscan Sun” (2003) with one major tweak: Its main characters are Black.
Anna (Halle Bailey), a culinary school dropout, makes ends meet in New York City as a house sitter for wealthy clients. Having played Arielle in the live-action “The Little Mermaid” (2023), Bailey trades out dreams of life on land for dreams of a summer in Tuscany, which come true courtesy of Matteo (Lorenzo de Moor), an Italian jet-setter she meets at a hotel bar and almost has a fling with. Matteo doesn’t fall madly in love with Anna, but he does indirectly give her directions to his empty Tuscan villa. Next thing we know, Matteo’s family discovers Anna staying there and assumes she must be his fiancé. Anna runs with it, all while striking up a flirtation with Matteo’s British Italian cousin Michael (Regé-Jean Page).
The film, directed by Kat Coiro, builds out a nutty love triangle that might’ve scratched an itch for its absurdity were it not also deeply unfunny, its caricatures of Italian people — like a taxi driver (Marco Calvani) who whisks Anna around town like a tanned fairy godfather — more cringe than comical. If anything, this cartoonishness, and a plot that relies on guidebook activities like vineyard romping and barrel racing, gives the film a knowingly artificial edge. Arguably, throwing us into wild fantasies are what rom-coms are for, and letting a Black woman do the honors of being swept away by her European reveries makes for an intriguing update to the genre. (Queen Latifah in “Last Holiday” (2006) is one Hollywood antecedent.)
The lackluster script by Ryan Engle, however, mostly sticks to the genre’s blueprints instead of rethinking this twist. One dorky, delightful scene involves Michael bursting into a rendition of Mario’s serenade “Let Me Love You” as Matteo’s mother (Isabella Ferrari) leads Anna through the motions of a traditional Italian wedding ceremony. These minor moments of cultural confluence aside, the film mostly keeps the question of race to a whisper. When Anna first speaks to Michael after he nearly runs her over with a wagon, he cuts her off when she tries to explain they’re the only two Black people in town. You mean the only two people who “speak English?”
To sell its brand of wish fulfillment, the film relies almost entirely on the charisma of its leads. Bailey plays cute and cuddly and ends up coming off like a blandly tame young adult heroine. Page, whom we know as a hunk from “Bridgerton,” is far more compelling, his Italian skills, shamelessly wet shirts, and soulful, slightly tortured masculinity encouraging the kind of escapism where nothing else matters, for better or worse.
You, Me & Tuscany Rated PG-13 for sexy make out sessions. Running time: 1 hour 44 minutes. In theaters.
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