For some of us, peak cinema might just be seeing Regé-Jean Page shirtless in a vineyard, getting doused by sprinklers.
The Bridgerton actor co-stars with singer Halle Bailey (star of Disney’s live-action The Little Mermaid) in You, Me & Tuscany, which premiered in theaters on April 10. Bailey leads as Anna, a culinary school dropout who dreamed of moving to Italy with her mother before mom passed away.
After a one-night stand gone wrong with an Italian playboy, Matteo, Anna squats in his empty Tuscan villa. Matteo’s estranged family mistakes her for his fiancée, which she plays along with—all while falling for the playboy’s winemaker cousin, Michael (played by Page, who seems to spend most of the film picking up and putting down crates of wine).
The film is spearheaded by producer Will Packer, who seems to want Tuscany to do for rom-coms what he did with buddy comedies in Girls Trip—his 2017 box office smash starring Queen Latifah and Jada Pinkett Smith. After Tuscany opened in the United States with $8 million in box office sales over the weekend, rom-com lovers and creators are biting their nails over whether the film is the death or rebirth of the rom-com—particularly Black-led rom-coms—with several similar projects in holding patterns by studio executives based on Tuscany’s success, according to Vulture.
For wine lovers looking at the sweeping shots of vineyards, hoping for a wine-centric movie, we regret to inform you—Sideways this is not. (In fact, one of the more wine-savvy moments is when Anna name-drops Sideways during a tasting.)
But does that really matter? It’s a joy to see two beautiful people be beautiful together—stumbling over their flirtations while sampling Sangiovese, impressing each other with their rudimentary tasting notes. Soon after, Anna and Michael race drunkenly through a verdant vineyard before getting soaked by Michael’s state-of-the-art sprinklers—Italian laws banning irrigation except in emergencies are conveniently ignored. (“You can Eat, Pray, Love me, baby,” exclaims a passerby, as Michael strips off his shirt.)
This movie is for Italophiles first and foremost, filled with big, sweeping views of Tuscany, candy-colored Fiats, cutesy piazzas populated with boisterous villagers and golden villas that are practically glowing on-screen.
Lying about this engagement gets harder as Anna grows more entrenched, not only with Michael but with the playboy’s family (featuring smile-inducing performances from Italian actors Isabella Ferrari, Paolo Sassanelli and Stella Pecollo). The family needs a new leader for their restaurant and Anna just happens to be a trained chef. But when fake fiancée Matteo comes back in town, it all comes crashing down—quite literally, with a climactic wine-barrel-pushing race down cobblestone streets.
As I sipped my Meiomi Pinot Noir from a plastic cup, who was I to throw stones at this movie that isn’t trying to be more than sweet, sappy Vin Santo goodness? At a time when every day brings a new news cycle, maybe we all need a bit more sweetness with the amaro.
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