Halle Bailey and Rege-Jean Page rom-com

There are worse things than looking at beautiful people in Tuscany. Halle Bailey shines as Anna, the heroine of this fairy-tale romance. Regé-Jean Page doesn’t have much to do except smile and show off his abs, but he’s very good at it. you, me and tuscany From the tourism approach as in the movies to the large Italian family owning a restaurant, the whole thing goes beyond the numbers. But for maximum crowd-pleasing effect it’s expertly directed by Kat Coiro and produced by Will Packer, offering the kind of lovely escapist fantasy that’s especially appealing in these difficult times.

The dilapidated premise of New York’s opening scenes is presented more slowly than necessary. Anna, an impoverished American who has lost her last job sitting at home, meets handsome Italian Matteo (Lorenzo De Moor) in a hotel bar. Through the kind of strange misadventure that happens only in rom-coms and sitcoms, the next day she leaves for her home village, the fictional San Conesa, is unable to get a hotel room, and goes to her lavish, empty villa.

From the moment Anna arrives in Tuscany, Danny Ruhlman’s stunning cinematography becomes a reason to watch as well as the actors. The camera flies over the Tuscan hills, lovingly lingers over Matteo’s sleek tasteful home and captures every shining ray of sunshine.

Matteo’s family mistakenly assumes that Ana is his fiancée and she pretends, which she regrets as she falls in love with her cousin Michael (Page), who runs the family vineyard. You’re not even meant to be surprised If They will merge together, so fast.

Of course, this isn’t the kind of movie you watch for realism. Or originality. it Is The kind of movie that doesn’t miss a single trope, but complicates them all. In New York, Anna has a brash, truth-telling best friend, Claire (Aziza Scott), who gets some of the best lines. In Tuscany she meets Lorenzo (Marco Calvani), an enthusiastic taxi driver who drives a small Fiat car and immediately becomes her friend and confidant. She arrives in time for a colorful village festival. And in this imagination it never rains. However, Anna and Michael get drenched by the sprinkler system in her vineyard, giving Michael a reason to take off his wet shirt without any actual inclement weather. Anna dropped out of culinary school after her mother, a chef, died, so of course she ends up cooking in the family restaurant.

Through it all, Bailey’s star power shines. She commands the camera’s attention, pops off the screen, and gives Anna an innocent energy that makes her antics seem mischievous and harmless. In the film she is given some Julia Roberts style rom-com moments, mini-monologues which she handles expertly. When she finally tells Michael she loves him, it’s a bit like that “I’m a girl standing in front of a boy” scene. Notting Hill, But with a second drenching from the sprinkler.

Page is a bit tough, but then so is Michael, an underwritten character who spends most of the film antagonizing the woman he believes is engaged to be his cousin. Some strange dialogue tells us that Michael’s parents died when he was a boy and his aunt and uncle raised him as Matteo’s brother. Ryan Engle’s script arranges things so that Michael and Anna bond over dead parents, but that plot device also leads to a rare, quiet scene that gives Page more to work with.

Coiro (marry me) skillfully directs the romance and family scenes. The flourishes are saved for cinematography, and for visual touches like bright medieval costumes and well-styled food for festival parades.

At one point a group of tourists stops in a vineyard. Two women see Anna and Michael kissing and compare what they see under the Tuscan Sun And eat Pray Love. creator of you, me and tuscany Know exactly what lane they’re in and have no interest in getting out of it. Luckily, they manage to do that.