Film: La Dolce Villa
Cast: Scott Foley, Violante Placido, Maia Reficco, Giuseppe Futia,
Simone Luglio, Tommaso Basili, Nunzia Schiano, Luisa De Santis
Director: Mark Waters
Rating: 2/5
Runtime: 99 min.
The new Netflix streamer rom-com “La Dolce Villa” is set in rural Italy, and centers on fifty-something widower Eric (Scott Foley), who is back in Italy to prevent his twenty-something daughter Liv (Maia Reficco who looks like a young Salma Hayek), who is going to use her inheritance to buy a villa. There’s this new economic plan in which small towns sell abandoned heritage villas “as is” for one Euro as a way of attracting new blood to their communities – that’s how she can afford it even though her inheritance is not sizable enough.
Once he arrives in the village of Montezara, he meets the town’s Mayor, Francesca (Violante Placido), and together they hatch a plan to help his daughter turn her villa into a cooking school that might be an even greater economic boost for the town. But of course there are multiple complications in the offing.
One of the film’s major plot points is based in reality. Small towns in Italy are starting to die off with people moving into the city and many historical homes falling vacant and into disrepair. But as represented in the film everything comes too easy to be real.
Unabashedly inspired by “Under The Tuscan Sun,” with the score and several plot points feeling familiar, this film under review is no patch on the earlier one. It skims over small-town community life without giving us a taste or feel of it.
Liv’s character journey, be it renovating the villa, her relationship with a hot local chef named Giovanni (Giuseppe Futia), and her sudden internship come too easy to feel true. Eric and Francesca’s blossoming relationship also feels forced. The story has too many weak links to curry favor with an audience.
The plotting does not allow for any great insight. There’s nothing exciting in the casting, characterizations and production design. There are too many clichés and exposition dumps in the script for the experience to be meaningful. Picture post card locations alone does not a movie make. Despite the appealing camerawork by director of photography, Theo van de Sande, this movie just does not go beyond the cursory and vapid.
