You, Me & Tuscany Parent Guide

Professional house sitter Anna (Halle Bailey) spends her days adopting the lives of her rich clients, but outside of her fantasy, she’s broke and directionless. Her dream of finishing culinary school and traveling to Italy was halted by the sudden passing of her mother, and she hasn’t cooked since. But one night she meets a handsome Italian stranger, Matteo (Lorenzo de Moor), who tells her all about his villa in Tuscany that sits empty while he travels the world for work. 

Certain that it’s a sign from the universe, Anna impulsively hops on a plane to Italy and breaks into the unoccupied villa. Unfortunately, her vacation is interrupted when Matteo’s mother and grandmother discover her in the house. Trying to cover her tracks, Anna pretends that she is Matteo’s fiancée, and that he will be joining her soon. The family are so overjoyed to meet her that she soon finds herself attending family dinners and planning a wedding to a man she barely knows. Falling deeper and deeper into the lie, Anna starts to develop an attraction to Matteo’s cousin, Michael (Regé-Jean Page), who has his suspicions about Anna’s story. 

I’m a simple woman when it comes to rom-coms; I love looking at gorgeous European countrysides and even more gorgeous men. Throw a few laughs in there and I’m having the time of my life. Luckily for me, whoever wrote You, Me & Tuscany seems to have the same proclivities. I laughed, I swooned, I did the mental math to see if I can afford a vacation to Italy anytime soon. Really what more could I ask for? 

This is an objectively silly movie. The plot is ridiculous, the side characters are goofy Italian stereotypes, and I’m 99% sure the writers have never had wine in their life based on the way the characters describe it. Anna is supposed to be gifted at cooking, but the “impressive” things she does are laughably simple. The moment that makes the family realize she’s a culinary genius is when she puts a steak that someone else cooked onto a plate. She doesn’t cook, season, or garnish it, she just takes it out of the pan. I don’t think the writers intended that to be funny, but I was cackling. I do get the sense overall that the script is meant to be tongue-in-cheek, and there is an awareness of the goofiness of the genre tropes, so I always felt like the movie was in on the joke. 

As you may have guessed, one of the film’s strongest elements is its humor. I laughed almost constantly, which is half of what a rom-com should be. The zany side characters are an absolute riot, and the situational comedy is on point. The “rom” is the weaker element, though that’s mostly because I don’t think Halle Bailey is a very good actress, so she struggles to stay afloat next to her more talented co-stars, which kills the chemistry she’s supposed to have with Regé-Jean Page. It’s not bad enough to sink the production, but it does create a disconnect between the more boring romance scenes and the rest of the film. 

With a fair amount of swearing, drinking, and sexual references, You, Me & Tuscany isn’t appropriate for family viewing. It is, however, on the cleaner side of the genre, which I appreciated, and I think will help it find an audience. I had a fantastic time, but I’m also fully aware that this is objectively not a great movie. It’s not groundbreaking in any way, and there are plenty of plot holes surrounding the obvious genre tropes, but I can’t be mad at those things because it has a sincerity that can be hard to find. This production knows exactly what it is supposed to be, and it executes in a sincere but goofy way. What I can be mad at is the lack of an Oxford comma in the title. 

About author

Savannah Sillito

Savannah Sillito is a librarian with a master's in library science, a bachelor's degree in English, and a certificate in early childhood education. She enjoys nonfiction books, travel, and is a staunch proponent of the Oxford comma.