“He’s got a brother who’s a brotha!” exclaims an ecstatic Anna (Halle Bailey; The Little Mermaid; The Colour Purple) to her bestie (Aziza Scott) back in New York. She’s just arrived in Tuscany, where she’s trying to pass herself off as the fiancée of Matteo (Lorenzo de Moor), who she’s only met once, briefly.
Matteo has a British-accented cousin, Michael (not his brother, and maybe he’s adopted, but never mind) who’s played by Regé-Jean Page (Bridgerton). Cue shirts off in a vineyard, swoon, screams of excitement from the audience.
This rom-com, directed by Kat Coiro (Marry Me; Matlock) and written by Ryan Engle, is remarkably silly and unreal but, judging by the phenomenal enthusiasm in the screening that I attended, it might be up many people’s street, especially if you’re a Bridgerton fan.
And the food, the sundresses, the Italian cars and the Tuscan locations are pretty. It has as much depth as an Instagram reel, a colour-blind, uncynical escapist fantasy with a stonkingly simplistic narrative arc. Maybe some songs could have propelled it into Mamma Mia territory.
There are a few fun moments - the formidable Stefania Casini (Bertolucci’s 1900; Suspiria; The Belly of an Architect) is splendid as Matteo’s baleful, suspicious grandma and Stella Peccolo is amusing as his ebullient sister who’s having an affair with the plumber. Page is charming and Bailey’s chaotic Anna is endearing enough.
Food is one of the main characters. After her mother died, Anna’s dreams of making it as a chef in NYC (her beloved mother was also a chef) died too and she still hasn’t got over her grief. She becomes a housesitter, which doesn’t work well because she takes advantage of her employer (a cameo from Nia Vardalos; My Big Fat Greek Wedding), trying on her clothes, not looking after her fluffy dog properly and being generally unreliable. She gets fired.
She meets Matteo while drowning her sorrows in a hotel bar. He’s staying there and shows her pics of his big old gorgeous villa, which she airdrops surreptitiously. He happens to mention that the house is sitting there empty and that he’s run away from his family, who expect him to be closely involved in the family restaurant (clearly a remarkably successful one). And he’s always been at loggerheads with his perfect cousin Michael. He and Anna spend the night together - no sex; he’s asleep as soon as they’re in bed - and leaves before she’s awake.
Cool as a cucumber, after a massive room-service breakfast, free-spirited grifter Anna seizes the day. She flies to Florence and goes to the villa by tiny Fiat Topolino taxi, making friends with the charming driver, Lorenzo (Marco Calvani) who doesn’t charge her for the journey and loves the romance of it all, even though there is none. “By leading a fake life you’ll find truth in your own,” is one of his, and the film’s, mantras. She finds the key in a flowerpot and ensconces herself happily in a luxurious bedroom. She also finds a ring in a junk drawer and puts it on. Yes, she’s shameless.
Soon Matteo’s mother (Isabella Ferrari) and grandma arrive and she’s rumbled. But she persuades them that she’s Matteo’s fiancée (they spot the ring). This thrills his mother and the rest of the family to bits. They’ll been desperate for this day to come for years. Who she is doesn’t seem to matter: how sweet. No race issues here. There’s the minor matter of the missing Matteo, but that can be glossed over, and he appears soon enough.
Extraordinarily quickly, Anna makes friends with everyone in the market, rustles up tomato bruschettas and is soon letting Michael show her the vineyard (filmed in Val d’Orcia), where she’s supposed to be marrying Matteo. The chemistry is overwhelming, they get soaking wet from some sprinklers and a tour bus of onlookers stops to admire them, especially the shirtless Michael. “I want to go on that tour,” cries an American matron, in an “I’ll have what she’s having” moment.
When Matteo’s dad (Paolo Sassanelli) is taken to hospital just when the restaurant is expecting an influx of tourists in town for the wine-barrel-rolling race, this is Anna’s moment. At last her chef-instincts can come to fruition and her mother’s famous shrimp recipe, though not strictly Italian, is a triumph. This is the family she never had. But can Matteo and Michael forget their enmity? Will Anna return to NYC with her tail between her legs? No prizes for guessing.
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