La Dolce Villa

From the trailer you can already tell the story and feeling you will get from this movie. It is a cute charming movie for the whole 'familia'. Sure, with a foreseeable storyline and few bumps on the path of realism or logic, but overall the story checks out. The characters and actors fit quite well and manage to attract interest, they are a bit cliché - ok a lot of cliché, still, they are charming. This feels like a short and sweet Italian vacation at the countryside. Dont watch if you feel already grumpy before watching - let the grumpy character be the mysterious man that left the villa. This is a movie to relax and feel a bit of dolce far niente. And I typically avoid spoilers in my reviews at all cost but... here I will make a tiny exception to the rule: make sure to have a warm pizza ready for the end of this cute movie. Buon appetito!

Easy film to watch with spectacular scenery. The cast gelled well and although a little formulaic the story ran well. Nice to hear the native Italian tongue in amongst the English too.

Scott Foley carries the main lead well and Violante Placido is perfect in her role as town mayor. Some scenes are poignant, without too much schmaltz and there are essences of comedy thrown in too, with the three ladies who sit in the town square. But it is the scenery that really steals the show and makes the movie very watchable.

I would definitely watch this film again and would put it in my "easy watching" category.

I started watching this, but couldn't stomach seeing it to the end. I'm American living in Europe for 55 years. I speak Italian and other languages, and visit Italy frequently. This movie is typical naive American cliché kitsch. The dialogue is full of American "New Speak" slang and cultural references that hardly anyone in Italy understands - I have trouble with it too. The protagonist is not there to admire and embrace millennia of culture, but rather, to spread the American obsession with turning everything into a business enterprise. I can't imagine any European giving this movie the thumbs-up. I can't.

The Italians welcome and support productions, like this one, that advertise their place in the best way. Landscapes, Villages, Food, Warm human relationships, at their best. Foreign visitors, usually busy businessmen and cut off from the warmth of everyday life, finally find their love in the cinematic representation of a country's excellence and its people. As for the film, it was a pleasant and comforting entertainment that also included the whole recipe; the daughter with the worried-ready-for-love father, the local grandmothers at the fountain, the handsome young cook (Italian food and wine is a must) and the local beautiful Italian mayor available for love. I admit the Italians and bow to their timeless skill in attracting scripts that advertise their country in the best way. !!

Let's begin with Scott Foley, the lead actor. His performance is drier and more wooden than an old door in a clapped out one-euro Italian villa. He seems like he's in a hurry to catch a plane in every scene, so, trying to get through his lines as quickly as possible, with the only expression he can muster, that of a surprised deer in the headlights. Violante Placido, the stunning Italian actress that plays Eric's love interest, was woefully directed, and the same goes for Maia Reficco, who plays his daughter. They seem to be capable of much more.

The script and dialogue is painfully predictable, formulaic and cringefully cheesy. On more than once occasion, I blurted out the dialogue almost word-for-word just before it was delivered. Eric's (Scott Foley) character is underdeveloped, touching a bit on the hackneyed stereotype of the culturally insensitive and arrogant American abroad.

The pacing is all wrong, and never changes, always feeling hurried and never allowing time for any of the character's emotions to absorb, much like a commercial. This is especially ironic for a movie about leaving the big city behind for the slow paced life of the Italian countryside.

The warm organic beauty of the scenery and sets were the only thing that kept me from fast forwarding through the film.

This genre was done a hundreds types better 22 years ago by Diane Lane in 'Under The Tuscan Sun'.

Scott Foley should find another line of work.