Leave Us Alone, Romeo!
Entitled english speakers fall for each other
Love in the Villa (2022) 🥐
This Disney style love story looks shiny and new, but falls into all the same patriarchal traps laid by the conventionally handsome, (tall, white, buff British) man.
Why Can’t We Have Nice Stories?
The best part about this movie was the quote from Princess Bride (which felt very forced) and seeing the heart-warming actor from Under the Tuscan Sun (one of my favorite movies)–Vincent Riotta.
Our lead Julie’s BBF is a gay man who is (for once) a person of color, but I was quickly disgusted when he calls her, “man repellent.” He also makes a bet with his partner that her boyfriend will breakup with her right after telling her he may propose! Bad friend alert!
The lead is Black which made me hopeful after the first not two, but three Rom=Com films I saw from Netflix this year had white leads with Black best friends. Representation or not, this film was a let down. (Wedding Season is now the only one of five Rom-Coms I’ve seen from Netflix this year that breaks the mold.) Sadly, Julie (our lead) doesn’t have the high powered job that our lead man has. (He’s a ‘shark’ in the fancy wine business.) She has a socially acceptable female lead job–as a school teacher. She seems passionate about her job, but she also reads Romeo and Juliet to 3rd graders. Suicide for love being lauded as romantic is NOT a lesson I would want my kids learning in elementary school (or ever). Say, ‘no’ to Romeo, Julie!
What the F-antasy
In this fantasy land, your immediately confronted with stereotypes. Not only does our lead woman have a thing for Shakespeare and destiny, we a have a cartoon-like Italian driver who’s only role seems to be comic relief as he speeds around recklessly in his striped mini-cooper.
The story of our entitled lovers starts off trying to make them seem equally terrible. They both arrive in Verona, Italy with the same Villa booked for the week. Oops! Instead of acting like decent humans they instantly start a war on each other to try and get the other to leave so they won’t have to share the flat.
The movie makes much too light of their sinister plots. She could have killed him by messing with his severe cat allergy or when he falls off the balcony after she locks him out of their apartment, and then she has him arrested. He also crosses the line from funny to disturbing. He steals her diary and posts it on the walls of the city, makes her think she’s eaten horse (more on that below), and has all her belongings donated to charity. Then, they just shrug it off and say it was, “the most fun they ever had”?! Ew! Even the actors didn’t seem like they bought it.
Gender Roles and Red Flags
Love in the Villa cleary hates people. Women are cruel pretty messes and men are helpless handsome a-h*les. At first Julie confidently tells our lead man, Charlie (same name as my dog which makes me really sad for my dog), that it’s her villa and he’s made a mistake. Then, her mood switches manipulatively on a dime when she realizes forcefulness isn’t working. She crys to make him cave on letting her stay. Do I feel bad for Charlie? Absolutely not. The second he meets Julie, he’s also incredibly rude and lies to her about everything to manipulate her. Match made in hell? Let’s continue to find out.
Julie is made out to be a hyper control freak which is what makes her stereotypically noncommittal boyfriend, Brandon, dump her in the begining of the movie (just before their trip to Verona). As an aside, the way men break up in this movie is just two words, “I’m out”. The emotional immaturity is astounding (and male bashing).
But for all her planning, she still gets to be the clumsy damsel who can’t keep it together (neither plans nor emotions). The writers want us to believe she didn’t plan for time between places & misses her tour bus? If she seems like a control freak maybe it’s because she is an underpaid, under apreciated Black school teacher in the USA with a societally given princess complex while still being expected to take care of all the things for men and put up with their bullshit of calling them neurotic. Maybe, just like, hypothetically… And I am certainly not buying that being out of control made her feel good. Someone who truly loves planning and relies on the security of having all her ducks in a row, would not enjoy psychotic gurrila warefare with a stranger who only barely let her sleep on the couch of the villa she booked.
She also flips out at eating the local specialty even though she likes because she realized it was horse meat. I’m not gonna say I would like the idea of eating a horse either, but she throws the plate across the room. It’s not a good look. Turns out, he lied again and it was mushrooms, not horse.
The movie trys to make her seem as bad as him, but in the end, I just see a woman who has no good support system (see bad best friend above), reacting to the patriarchy.
Despite all the horror, Julie also somehow manages to not get a hangover after they drink a lot, she cleans up after their fight mess (broken dishes, food on the wall, his spitoon…), and swoons when he mansplains why choosing one woman out of billions in the world is more romantic than predetermined destiny. She then convinces him to quit his soulless job. I said it before, I’ll say it again… IT’S NOT YOUR JOB TO FIX A MAN! He should quit his job because he knows it’s the right thing not because she told him to wake up and go after his dreams.
Even Charlie admits to being a “tosser” most of the time. He didn’t tell her she’s on a break with his ex-fiancé. His best quality is being a good cook (see horse example above), which might I add is a skill not a personality trait to admire, and he is very good at scamming people out of their hard earned wine. He also admits that he abides by the the idea that power in relationships resides with the one who cares less. But deep down she thinks he’s a “good guy” a “romantic.” Public service announcement: Folks, this is a red flag (or series of red flags) that you may be dating a narcissist.
Men, you can’t have it both ways. You can’t want women to shake you out of bad career/life decisions, have them clean up after you, look like a super model, have a careers they are passionate about yet aren’t too powerful, and still have them be easy-breezy when the plans they painstakingly made fall apart with dramatic flare. That doesn’t make her “Flawesome” just like you. Her entitled attitude is likely more a result of never having anything handed to her and needing to be strong–whereas yours is just because you are a narcissist.
There was one moment when Julie suddenly wakes up and is realizes that she and Charlie don’t actually know each other, so she’s out. But there was still 30 min left in the film. I knew the empowerment opportunity was out the window.
Salty Side Notes
Small side, note, the waredrobe for Julie is just plain odd. It’s not cute and squishes her breasts in a way that makes it look like they’re trying to make them look smaller. The actor must have been so uncomfortable!
Other side note, why do the women we’re supposed to think are no good and kind of crazy always have too much luggage and expensive tastes? (He’s allowed to like fancy wine but not his crazy ex). Why have we built up this stereotype of the unlikeable woman based on the ideals that we’re also meant to live up to? Look perfect all the time, like nice things, need help with your bags, but that will also be why we hate you.
Other, other side note, don’t propose to someone who was just stumbling because they were so drunk! And don’t even consider getting back with someone who came after you after you intentionally blocked their number!
Other, other, other side note: There is no explanation of how she is going to teach in Minneapolis and he will have a vineyard in Tuscany. #plothole
I’m exhausted.
The weird thing is that this movie seems somewhat self aware. It knows it’s using every problematic trope in the book but still expects me to love it. I’m shocked that they think I am that basic. Just because I love Rom-Coms, does not mean I will swoon for a Romeo and Juliet throw back or an unearned quote about how our “weirdness matches.”
Not Only Complaints, but Mostly
Verona is beautiful–if that is where they actually filmed. At least parts of it felt very much like a studio, but there were a few landscape/cityscape establishing shots that were lovely.
Julie does call out that her ex, Brandon, still doesn’t know how he feels–just how his family and friends feel about her and that that isn’t good enough. She doesn’t break up with him for a while after that, but I get it, breakups are hard.
Dear Netflix,
If you’re feeling a bit sh*t upon by my now 4 post about the 5+ Rom-Com movies you released this year, know I am being hard on you because I have seen you do so much better with content like Falling Inn Love, Wedding Season, Love, Guaranteed, Nappily Ever After, Special, and Sex Education. I suggest you throw out the formula for a successful Rom-Com that I’m imagining you shove on your writers along that your AI who created it for you. You can do better.
Find me on Twitter @LoveOfRomComs
