The tagline for You, Me & Tuscany reads: “She came for the pasta and got lost in the sauce.” “Sauce” feels like the right word because director Kat Coiro throws everything into the pot and hopes it simmers into a rom-com. Instead, she creates a dish of undercooked ideas smothered in cheese.
Anna (Halle Bailey) has shelved her dreams of becoming a chef and now scrapes by as a housesitter. A chance meeting with Matteo (Lorenzo de Moor) reignites her wanderlust, sending her off to Tuscany – only to arrive during a packed summer festival with nowhere to stay. Knowing Matteo’s villa sits empty while he’s abroad, she lets herself in, indulging in a fantasy getaway until she discovers an engagement ring and, naturally, puts it on.
When Matteo’s mother Gabriella (Isabella Ferrari) arrives unexpectedly, Anna panics and lets her believe she’s the fiancée. Enter Matteo’s cousin, the charming winemaker Michael (Regé-Jean Page), whose presence threatens to unravel the lie.
Lacking the charm of Coiro’s Marry Me and the energy of producer Will Packer’s Girls Trip or Think Like a Man , You, Me & Tuscany barely rises above Hallmark Channel fare. A certain level of cheesiness is expected in a romantic fantasy. Still, You, Me & Tuscany never delivers the warmth, romance, or even the sensory pleasures – namely food, wine, and scenery – that should define it. For a story about a chef, a winemaker, and a restaurant-owning family, it’s surprisingly starved of flavour.
To paraphrase a friend, it feels like someone input a list of rom-com prompts into ChatGPT and the film we see is the story that was spit out. It often feels assembled from a checklist of rom-com tropes rather than a cohesive story. Perplexingly, the film’s screenwriter is Ryan Engle. He’s the writer behind such decidedly non-rom-coms as the action-packed Non-Stop , Beast , Rampage , and The Commuter. The dialogue plays like misplaced action-movie banter, where pauses hang awkwardly or like a sitcom, as if waiting for a punchline or a laugh track that never comes. Misplaced references to Under the Tuscan Sun and Sideways only highlight how far this film falls short. Would a 27-year-old woman in 2026 really compare herself to Paul Giamatti in the 2004 film Sideways ? Something tells me she would not, but a male screenwriter in his late 40s just might.
Suspension of disbelief is part of the genre, but Coiro fails to inject any real magic into the setting. Despite its title, Tuscany feels interchangeable like a flat, underused, and oddly artificial backlot version of Italy. Even the market scenes evoke a theme park fauxness more than lived-in charm.
There’s been plenty of discussion about modern films over-explaining plot points for distracted audiences who spend the film scrolling on their phones. That tendency is on full display here, with the film repeatedly reminding viewers that Anna is stuck wearing an engagement ring she can’t remove – short of olive oil or simply telling the truth.
The bigger issue is character. Anna’s central lie and her decision to break into the villa never feel grounded, and the script shows little interest in exploring who she is beyond the surface. Michael, too, is burdened with more complex backstory than anything that shows he would be an appealing partner. The film seems more focused on getting Page to take of his shirt than building any chemistry with Bailey. Granted, it’s the reason a lot of viewers will be watching, but there’s little payoff beyond those goods. There may be a few dull sparks between him and Bailey, but the rushed pacing and flat dialogue make it hard to tell. Their interactions often feel more like siblings than potential lovers.
The supporting cast fares no better. Great Italian actress Isabella Ferrari is reduced to making faces and making Big! Italian! Exclamations!, while side characters drift in and out with little purpose beyond a one-liner or reaction shot. Even recurring gags, like the quirky taxi driver Lorenzo in his comically small car, feel underdeveloped and inconsistently deployed.
In the end, You, Me & Tuscany has all the right ingredients, but never quite comes together. What should be a rich, satisfying romance ends up tasting bland. It’s proof that even in Tuscany, you can still get lost in the sauce.
