There have been few countries that have been more romanticised to the point of it being a cliché than Italy, which has developed a reputation for being the dream destination for so many people. It’s not difficult to see why this would be the case – it’s a country whose rich history is matched by the gorgeous landscapes, with both the cities and rural areas scattered around the country being some of the most unquestionably beautiful, and the sense of history that lingers in every cobblestone is very appealing to those with an affection for the past. It is also a very safe location for romantic stories, since the setting tends to come with an in-built sense of dreamlike wonder that often matches these swooning stories of people falling in love. The most recent entry into this genre is You, Me & Tuscany, the second film from Kat Coiro, in which we meet Anna, a well-meaning American woman who, on a whim, decides to travel to Tuscany after a brief affair (or rather, a one-night stand) with a mysterious foreigner, leading her to believe that her future lies in the picturesque surroundings of Northern Italy. However, this proves not to be the case once she eventually realises that there is more to making your life in this part of the world than the romances that she devoured in the past may have suggested. However, when she comes across Michael, a handsome vintner and beloved member of the community, she starts to see that there may indeed be a way to make this life work after all. If this all sounds overly conventional, that is because You, Me & Tuscany is very much built from a familiar premise, the kind of well-meaning but otherwise bland romantic comedy that is nothing more than a bundle of heavy-handed tropes, hand-delivered by a filmmaker who is certainly not a neophyte (her previous films like Life Happens and A Case of You also had a lot of potential, and were simply just underseen) but who seems to lack the foresight to know that we can’t simply be relying on razor-thin premises to sustain entire films, especially those which don’t do anything other than retread the same tired tropes we’ve seen for decades.

The ideas on which You, Me & Tuscany are built are very obvious and clearly drawn from very familiar territory, since there is nothing particularly new being said with this film. The story of an American struggling to find her place in her hometown decides to take a gamble on travelling to Europe, where she intends to go on a voyage of self-discovery in the hopes of revealing herself to the world, is hardly new or revolutionary, but it is reliable. It is from here that Coira crafts what is essentially nearly two hours of the same joke being repeated in different ways: what happens when a clumsy American decides to take up residence in Tuscany, and how much chaos can she possibly inadvertently cause in the process? It’s not a particularly new concept, yet somehow seems to be all this film seems to be focused on exploring, ignoring all the other potentially promising avenues down which the story could eventually go, choosing the most obvious path. However, to give the film some credit, it does quite well in capturing the many differences that exist between the two countries, and while it does ultimately fall into the same generalised tropes that we usually anticipate when it comes to these one-culture-clash comedies, which have proven to be predictably very popular. The core of You, Me & Tuscany is built around the fish-out-of-water premise of a young woman deciding that the only way to find herself is to travel halfway across the world, having more luggage than plans, and ultimately just making one perfect mistake after another. The moments where this film is most effective are those where it plays into the inherent quirks, celebrating Italian culture and its most obvious archetypes (the cuisine and family-centred values being most prominent, as we would expect), while fitting in a romantic plot that could’ve taken place absolutely anywhere, making it clear that this was a film built from the idea of exploring a different culture, with the eventual decision being to set it in Italy, if only for the sake of making use of some very common cliches, rather than having to put in too much work into new cultural conversations.

You, Me & Tuscany is a film with some lovely ideas, but which are unfortunately slightly squandered in the execution. Criticising this film seems odd, since the most glaring problem with it is probably that it does everything relatively well, yet seems so dull once we see the final product, the entire film being quite lifeless and lacking in the spark that we would hope would be the foundation for such a story. It does make good use of the locations, with the decision to film some of it along the Amalfi Coast giving it a very distinct visual aesthetic (although some parts seem oddly artificial, making us wonder if some scenes were filmed in a studio, since they feel slightly uncanny), and the director ensuring that we are never confused about why the story was set in this part of the world, another instance of the film’s setting overtaking the actual narrative. However, beautiful locations simply cannot compensate for a film that just doesn’t know what to do with itself, beyond throwing two people together and forcing them to fall in love with one another, which is enough to pique our curiosity but certainly not hold it longer than was necessary, which is where we first begin to wonder where this film is trying to land. To be fair, at no point does You, Me & Tuscany intend to be some provocative treatise on the ins-and-outs of falling in love, choosing instead to be a relatively straightforward romantic comedy – but it is in this attempt to be more humble that it ultimately proves to be a bit of a misfire, since any film that makes it clear that it doesn’t really have anything all that interesting to say is immediately going to cause some degree of concern, since it thinks the audience isn’t aware of the myriad films that follow identical premises that came before this, since it not only takes a very derivative narrative approach, but seems to luxuriate in the strange belief that it is somehow innovative, when in reality it is far from the first film to tackle these exact themes (in fact, it’s not even the only film from this year that tells this story – the putrid Solo Mio is also about an American taking a journey of self-discovery through the Italian countryside), and ultimately just feels so incredibly obvious.

Interestingly enough, despite my protestations that make it seem like the film lacks any artistic value, I will openly acknowledge that You, Me & Tuscany is far from the only film that seems completely derivative. If anything, its tendency to aim for the low-hanging fruit is a symptom of the genre rather than this film on its own, which is not difficult to understand, since romantic comedies can sometimes be far too obvious. Unfortunately, many equally lacklustre films manage to disguise their shortcomings through casting actors who are not only very gifted on their own, but have incredible chemistry. Remove any random pairing from your chosen romantic comedy classic, and you’d probably find (with a few exceptions, although not many) that the actors are ultimately what elevates a film, more than any other aspect. The idea of seeing Halle Bailey and Regé-Jean Page leading this film seemed exciting from a distance – the former has steadily been proving herself as an actor to watch after a solid music career, while the latter has taken on several roles built around his inherent charisma. Despite the potential, it’s shocking to discover that both Page and Bailey are not very good in the film, which is not a criticism of their talent (they’re both quite gifted) but rather the very clear mismatch between the screenplay and what they were being asked to do. As a whole, the film is quite limited and never really amounts to anything, so seeing the two leads struggling to actually play characters without any personality is already concerning, and the revelation that they don’t really have much chemistry only further sullies any potential this film had at the outset. I place the blame squarely on the poor writing, since not even the most gifted of actors could turn this heavy-handed, cliche-riddled script into something passable, so it isn’t a knock against the performers themselves, but rather the film thinking that it could just coast on the most obvious tropes without actually contributing anything valuable in the process.

Perhaps being too harsh on a film like You, Me & Tuscany is slightly unnecessary, especially since one of the few clear merits I can find in the film without any hesitation is that it knows who its audience is, and panders to them rather than those who are either inherently cynical to the romantic comedy genre, or at least crave something unique from these stories. I occupy the second category, which is probably where my ambivalence towards this film comes in, since it’s nothing particularly revolutionary, which seems like a missed opportunity to take some bold swings, even if that was never the intention. It is the very definition of a run-of-the-mill romantic comedy, doing nothing to reinvent the wheel while also seemingly lacking the foresight to realise that it is telling a story that has been done so many times before, never contributing anything new. It just feels a bit lazy, which is the only reason the film becomes so incredibly overwrought, in spite of its strong potential at the outset. The unconvincing performances do very little to persuade us to go against that initial reaction, since they never meet our expectations and ultimately become far too one-dimensional for us to actually appreciate, despite having some lovely moments which prove to be scattered quite disparately throughout the film. You, Me & Tuscany is a major disappointment, which may be a surprise considering we can acknowledge that it did do what it set out to achieve, which is to be a fun, lightweight romance set in one of the most gorgeous regions of Europe – but its heavy-handed writing, lacklustre storytelling and frequent inability to do anything even vaguely original all work towards making this a mediocre experience, and one that does nothing particularly inventive or unique, and just falls flat almost immediately, despite having some promise.