La Dolce Villa, a light and breezy romcom about an American father and daughter restoring an Italian villa, is the kind of bright and cheerful comedy you expect in a romcom. This one screams, “Take me to Tuscany right now!” in every beautiful picture postcard frame.
In La Dolce Villa, Eric (Scott Foley) – who hates Italy – heads for Italy to persuade his 25 year old daughter Olivia (Maia Reficco) that she should not put any money into restoring a derelict villa. It’s a “one Euro” villa, which means the town will sell her the place for one Euro if she promises to fix it up.
Francesca (Violante Placido) is the town mayor. She is showing Olivia the villas available. She’s trying to revive her dying town by bringing in young people with this cheap housing scheme. Olivia wants to buy it. Eric doesn’t want her to do it.
You don’t need much more of a set up to know that Eric and Francesca are going to become a thing. Eric used to be a chef. Now he’s CEO of a business that supplies kitchens. He’s always on the phone with his team back home in the U.S., especially Zola (Giselle Gant).
Also predictable is Eric turning out to be gung ho on the restoration. They work together with a local guy, Nino (Simone Luglio), who can apparently restore anything.
A local chef, Gio (Giuseppe Futia) gets Eric cooking again. Olivia falls for him. Two romcoms for the price of one!
And wouldn’t it be fun if they made their restored villa into a cooking school?
The film is full of humor and a few tender moments between father and daughter. There are complications, but nothing too serious. It’s predictable and pleasant and will make romcom fans happy. It’s on Netflix.
P.S. Take me to Tuscany, now!
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