Richard Crouse

SYNOPSIS: In “You, Me & Tuscany,” a new rom com starring Halle Bailey and Regé-Jean Page now playing in theatres, a directionless twenty-something woman crashes at an empty Italian villa and is mistaken for the owner’s fiancée.

CAST: Halle Bailey, Regé-Jean Page, Lorenzo de Moor, Isabella Ferrari, Aziza Scott, Marco Calvani, Nia Vardalos. Directed by Kat Coiro.

REVIEW: Coming hot on the heels of subversive romantic comedies like “The Drama,” “Anora,” “Materialists” and “Pillion” comes an old-school rom com that, for better and for worse, embraces the genres tropes.

“The Little Mermaid’s” Halle Bailey stars as Anna, an aimless twenty-something who gave up on her dream of becoming a chef after her mother died. When she loses her house-sitting job, and finds herself with nowhere to live, she impulsively decides to change her life after a chance encounter with Matteo (Lorenzo de Moor), handsome Italian man with a villa in sun-drenched Tuscany.

“It’s not about him,” she tells BFF Claire (Aziza Scott). “He doesn’t even live there anymore, but he told me about his big old villa just sitting there… Empty.”

Uninvited, she plans on spending one night in the empty villa, but the plan is thrown into chaos when Matteo’s mother Gabriella (Isabella Ferrari) drops by without warning. Panicked, she poses as Matteo’s fiancée.

“You can pretend to be his fiancée or you go to prison,” says cab driver Lorenzo (Marco Calvani). “Either way, it’s very romantic.”

The situation gets even more complicated when Matteo’s cousin, Michael (Regé-Jean Page) arrives. As he encourages her to rediscover her passion for food and life, romance blossoms. “You belong here,” he tells her.

Pure escapism, “You, Me & Tuscany” is a glossy return to the formulaic rom com that offers no surprises, just cheesy, sweet-natured feel-good laughs tinged with romance.

It’s comfort food that doesn’t ask much of the audience. It’s enough to sit back and watch the rom com clichés as they fly to the air.

There are both the standard rom com New York setting and loads of HGTV Tuscan lifestyle porn, a brash best friend, a meet cute, misunderstandings and appealing leads who (A SPOILER BUT ONLY IF YOU’VE NEVER SEEN A ROM COM BEFORE!) you know will eventually end up together. These movies aren’t about the destination, one glance at the movie poster on the way into the theatre will let you know how the story ends, they are about the journey.

The key element is the cast and here both leads, Halle Bailey and Regé-Jean Page, exude enough warmth and charm to keep things interesting despite the familiarity of the story. They’re the story’s heart and are surrounded by a cast of wacky characters

The beauty of “You, Me & Tuscany” is that it is, loudly and proudly, a slick and frothy, relentlessly upbeat rom com with all that entails. It’s a story of forgiveness, family, and food for fans of the genre. All others needn’t apply.