‘You, Me & Tuscany’ Review: For When You Just Can’t Help Falling in Love

April 9, 2026

jmunney Cinema, Movie Reviews , , , , , , , , , , , 2 Comments

Which one’s “You” and which one’s “Me”? (CREDIT: Giulia Parmigiani/Universal Pictures)

Starring: Halle Bailey, Regé-Jean Page, Marco Calvani, Lorenzo de Moor, Aziza Scott, Isabella Ferrari, Stefania Casini, Stella Pecollo, Paolo Sassanelli, Nia Vardalos

Director: Kat Coiro

Running Time: 105 Minutes

Rating: PG-13 for Plenty of Playful Innuendo

Release Date: April 10, 2026 (Theaters)

What’s It About?: Aspiring young cook Anna (Halle Bailey) hasn’t been feeling very aspirational lately. Her mom (who always encouraged her dreams) recently passed away, and her bank account is running dry. She’s been making ends meet as a housesitter for fancy rich folk in the Big Apple, but she has a plane ticket to Italy that her mom bought her that’s just waiting to be redeemed if she ever wants to re-stoke her culinary ambitions. Then a chance encounter with a globetrotting Italian fellow named Matteo (Lorenzo de Moor) leads her to actually go through with that plan. Alas, she doesn’t exactly have anywhere to stay, so she just makes herself at home in Matteo’s empty Tuscan villa. Once his family discovers her, she pretends to be Matteo’s fiance, but that charade soon becomes even more untenable once she starts catching feelings for Matteo’s cousin Michael (Regé-Jean Page). And he’s not the only one who’s charmed, as pretty much the entire family instantly falls in love with her.

What Made an Impression?: A Warm Embrace: You, Me & Tuscany isn’t shy about showing off its assets (within the bounds of a PG-13 rating). If you’re feeling good about yourself in Italian wine country, why not let the sun dapple your exposed skin? That’s certainly the philosophy that Anna and Michael (and pretty much everyone else in Tuscany) seems to be operating under. And I’m not just talking about sensual openness. Despite all the lies, these characters cannot help but let the truest depths of their warm personalities shine through. Bailey has never been a more winning screen presence, and the whole experience is one wonderful big hug of a movie.
The Long and Winding (and Confusing and Regretful) Road: At one point, someone offers Anna advice in the form of what may very well be You, Me & Tuscany‘s thesis statement: sometimes making the wrong choice leads to the right choice. On the one hand, that’s mighty wise counsel, as we shouldn’t let ourselves be held back indefinitely by our mistakes. Instead, we should give ourselves the grace to move forward. However, in the context of the narrative, this runs the risk of excusing a whole lot of deception. If I were on my own Tuscan villa vacation and thus had a whole bunch of free time, I could expand my analysis about this conflict into a 5,000-10,000-word essay. For now, I’ll conclude that the emphasis on forgiveness makes for a sufficiently heartwarming message.
Have a Seat and Get Comfy: Y,M&T may be just as credulity-stretching as any other wish-fulfillment rom-com, and its understanding of Italian culture may be only slightly less broad than the Mario movies, but it’s just charming enough to get away with all that. I’ve already sung the praises of the leads and the extended family, and now it’s time to underscore all that by also mentioning Anna’s confidante. Or actually confidantes, plural, since she’s lucky enough to have two of them. First, there’s her pregnant best friend Claire (Aziza Scott), who stays back in the States and basically plays the same part that Lil Rel Howery did in Get Out. And then on the ground in Italy, there’s taxi driver Lorenzo (Marco Calvani), who basically becomes Anna’s personal chauffeur in his cozy little Fiat. He’s the audience surrogate character, assuming that you love love as much as the most devoted rom-com devotee. If you’re always pulling for the fairy tale to actually happen, but you also always offer a shoulder to cry on if it doesn’t work out, then you’ll appreciate what Lorenzo (and this whole movie, in fact), has to offer.

You, Me & Tuscany is Recommended If You Like: Wine, Bread, Pasta, Spontaneity, Tomatoes, Soil, Sandwiches

Grade: 3.5 out of 5 Bruschettas

Will ‘Marry Me’ Make Us Merry?

February 10, 2022

jmunney Cinema, Movie Reviews , , , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

Marry Me (CREDIT: Barry Wetcher/Universal Pictures)

Starring: Jennifer Lopez, Owen Wilson, Maluma, John Bradley, Sarah Silverman, Chloe Coleman, Michell Buteau, Stephen Wallem, Jimmy Fallon, Jameela Jamil, Utkarsh Ambudkar

Director: Kat Coiro

Running Time: 112 Minutes

Rating: PG-13 for Fairly Mild Profanity

Release Date: February 11, 2022 (Theaters and Peacock)

Where does Marry Me the movie place in my rankings of pop cultural uses of that particular matrimonial phrase? Its opponents of course includes Maeby Fünke’s usage of it as a catchphrase on Arrested Development to deflect anyone and everyone’s suspicions about her actual age. And it’s also the title of indie rocker St. Vincent’s 2007 debut album (which was itself named after AD). So clearly the competition is pretty stiff! It’s even stiffer when you consider that there’s a song called “Marry Me” that’s performed multiple times in the movie. So in that sense, the film is competing against itself for Marry Me-dominance!

Okay, folks, I’m not going to jerk you around any longer: Arrested Development wins my vote for best use of “Marry Me.” But this new romantic comedy still has its own particular charms that are worth considering.

The premise is a modern day fairytale: Jennifer Lopez plays Kat Valdez, a pop superstar not too dissimilar from J. Lo herself. She’s all set to marry her musical/romantic partner Bastian (Colombian singer Maluma) in an extravagant onstage ceremony, but when she discovers that he’s been cheating on her, she suddenly chooses a random concertgoer in the form of single dad Charlie Gilbert (Owen Wilson) as a replacement groom. Their union is legally legit, but everything else is just for show for the tabloids and the Instagram-viewing masses, at least initially. Charlie hardly knows Kat anyway, as he was only at the show since his tween daughter Lou (Chloe Coleman) is a fan. He might also be the epitome of modern fiction’s social media-agnostic stock character, and if that character is going to be played by someone as effortlessly charming as Wilson, then I’m here for it!

Marry Me really comes alive in the quiet two-hander moments when it’s just Lopez and Wilson on screen. His advice about the publicity machine being B.S. might be simple and far from revolutionary, but it’s also tender and wonderfully supportive. “Support” is really the key word here, as both Charlie and Kat are surrounded by endlessly loyal friends who know just how to nudge things in the right direction. And in addition to all that, there’s a subplot about a middle school math contest, with Charlie as a coach and Lou as one of the mathletes. So therefore I must say, if back in 2001 when I was in seventh grade, Jennifer Lopez had randomly shown up at one of my math contests, that would have been pretty cool. And while a movie version of that scenario might not be quite as magical as the real-life hypothetical, it’s still something I’m happy to have experienced.

Marry Me is Recommended If You Like: Dreaming the Improbable Dream, Turning the cameras off to have a conversation, Math puns

Grade: 3 out of 5 Pi-thons