Picture this: two of the most attractive people in the world frolicking through Italian vineyards, covered in water, set to a jazzy score with a comedic ensemble cast delivering goofy, quotable writing. Better yet, picture watching this in a packed movie theater.
That’s right, rom coms are back at the cinema. You, Me & Tuscany features a plot similar to While You Were Sleeping (1995), minus the stress of a train track coma. It’s a destination love story resulting from a fortuitous misunderstanding, starring Halle Bailey as Anna, a financially unstable once-aspiring cook setting off for Italy, and Regé-Jean Page as Michael, an England-born, Italy-raised vineyard owner who enviously thinks Anna is marrying his brother, Matteo (Lorenzo de Moor). Little does Michael know that Anna just needed a villa to crash in and has a habit of trying on things that aren’t hers (like an engagement ring).
If you haven’t seen Page since Season 1 of Bridgerton (2020), it’s because he’s been hard at work taking over the family winery business. In actuality, he’s had a few projects since he stole our hearts on the London ton, including The Gray Man (2022), Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023), and Black Bag (2025).
When Page was cast as the lead in Bridgerton, he received backlash for looking different from the Simon described in Julia Quinn’s book series. Page called out the racist feedback, shouting out his Brazilian fans: “When everyone else was still passive-aggressively getting all knotted up because I didn’t have blue eyes, the Brazilians were there for me.”
He’s not alone in receiving that kind of bigoted vitriol based on a casting choice. Bailey was hit with similar outrage on an even larger scale when she was cast to play Ariel in Disney’s live-action The Little Mermaid(2023). She has since shared that the experience taught her how to block out the noise, and that other women in Hollywood reached out to offer support and community.
After dealing with cruel discourse, it’s a breath of fresh air to see the two of them at the center of such a love letter to the rom-com genre. If successful, a romantic comedy with an original screenplay and two Black leads could have major implications for investments in other exciting projects. Black filmmaker Nina Lee has urged people to go see this film, saying that studios and executives she’s met with won’t agree to buy her film or her romance script until they see how You, Me & Tuscany does. It’s a box office numbers game; streaming services have seen their fair share of romance media in recent years, but bringing back the art of theatrical releases for this genre, particularly with Black leads, is a cause worth fighting for.
Emily in Paris (2020–) lovers will appreciate the vacation escapism through the lens of an American fashionista like Anna. Anna’s cab driver, Lorenzo (Marco Calvani), has a whimsy very reminiscent of Luc (Bruno Gouery) from Emily in Paris. They both offer cultural insight and advice, free of judgment, instantly befriending the clueless American. Lorenzo’s little cab is called Coochie, which creates great lines like, “Make way for Coochie!” The writing is deliciously cheesy. People are saying things you’d never hear in real life, like an Italian grandmother with a thick accent somehow knowing the phrase “tap that ass.”
The film opens with a dreamy morning routine in New York, where Anna greets local tradesmen, smells flowers, and beams as she struts about the city in her gorgeous ensemble to the upbeat tune of “Right Here, Right Now” by Carlos Zatch. The illusion comes to a grinding halt when Mrs. Dunn (Nia Vardalos) discovers that Anna has been pretending she lives in the house she’s housesitting for, all the way down to Mrs. Dunn’s outfit and lingerie Anna is brazenly wearing.
Vardalos’s brief cameo is exciting for rom-com lovers because of her iconic performance in My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002), but her over-the-top acting in Tuscany makes it pretty clear this was nowhere near as much of a passion project as the former.
Seeing You, Me & Tuscany and Project Hail Mary (2026) in the same week at the cinema calls attention to something they both have in common, and, impressively, The Drama distinctly evades: spoiler-heavy movie trailers. For months, I’ve seen the same punchlines and plot points revealed in previews for You, Me & Tuscany that not only flaunt the entire movie but also make it look worse than it is. The Drama has a twist that everyone has (generally) tried to protect; I went into You, Me & Tuscany frowning at some of the funniest moments because I’d seen them already, or waiting for certain lines to be delivered that actually wound up being cut. Similarly, I wish I’d never known about the friend Grace (Ryan Gosling) makes in Hail Mary — thankfully, there’s a bit more to dig into in both of these stories than the trailers let on.
One of the biggest appeals of rom-coms and feel-good travel films is the way they transport you and make you yearn for simple pleasures. I spent the whole movie thinking: I want to be woken up in a Tuscan villa to Italian opera sung by a gardener. I want to sip on the orangest Aperol spritz in the world on ancient cobblestone outside a restaurant. And, of course, I want a soaking wet Regé-Jean Page to rub dirt across my palms. Or Halle Bailey. I relate heavily to that jealous girl from the tour bus and the blooper reel. That’s right, there’s a blooper reel during the credits! Just like Freakier Friday (2025), they know their nostalgic audience.
It’s interesting how the film consistently frames Anna as a sweet, well-intentioned protagonist, and we buy into it because of Bailey’s immense likability. But given Anna’s risky life choices, with different casting and slightly different writing, we might be wringing our hair out screaming: “What’s wrong with you?!” She has the ultimate lucky-girl syndrome, using every dime she has for a trip to Italy and deciding to break into a villa owned by a guy she just met. We don’t sweat it because the tone of the movie is so lighthearted, and we know she’ll figure it out.
One of the qualities that makes Anna so endearing is her passion for cooking. It’s the reason she and her recently passed mother had wanted to go to Italy. This is a film chock full of gorgeous focaccia sandwiches, red wine, fresh tomato toasts, the works. It transports you, giving you the Ratatouille (2007) flavor effect — two different swirls of color appearing above your head as you relish different notes of the scenery coming together.
Early in the film, Michael and Matteo’s mother (Isabella Ferrari) explains that there’s a part of the Italian wedding ceremony where the man will sing to the woman, and nothing from before that moment will matter. All will be forgiven. There’s some pretty heavy-handed foreshadowing. They then have Michael begrudgingly fill in for Matteo and perform a song for Anna to rehearse the wedding setup. Michael launches into an Andy Samberg-esque rendition of “Let Me Love You” by Mario, with Anna chuckling almost as hard as I am. It’s a train wreck you can’t look away from.
Anna shows him up with her own singing later on, barely scratching the surface of Bailey’s well-known vocal talents from her Chloe x Halle pop duo career with her sister, as well as her trailblazing success in The Little Mermaid. This whole bit feels rushed in its introduction, and the later payoff isn’t as theatrical or satisfying as, say, Heath Ledger running through the bleachers with a marching band in 10 Things I Hate About You (1999). Trumpet section or not, rom-coms tend to loop back in a turn of phrase or inside joke for their reconciling ending, and this one feels half-baked. It’s a shame, because you climb on board for most of the other cheesiness.
Although You, Me & Tuscany may not be immediately joining the ranks of When Harry Met Sally (1989) or Hitch(2005) in terms of timeless classic status, it’s a welcome treat during a stressful year. I urge you to invest your spending money or use your movie passes to purchase tickets to this feature in order for more of its kind to get made. It’ll feel like a 1-hour and 45-minute study abroad trip you can’t help but romanticize, despite its quirks. Let the quirkiness wash over you. It’s the most coochie movie I’ve seen all year. (Coochie means cute in Italian.)
Review Courtesy of Risa Bolash
Feature Image Courtesy of Universal Pictures