Romantic comedies can be one of life's true pleasures – the best of these movies don't necessarily ask that much from you, instead taking you on a genuinely lovely journey that typically ends in love and mutual respect. Of course, jokes along the way do tend to help things.
Netflix has an eye firmly on Valentine's Day this year, looking to consolidate its position as the best streaming service for date nights, and it just trailed a really fun-looking rom-com coming on 13 February: La Dolce Villa. Let's agree to be forgiving on the quality of that titular pun, though.
The film stars Scott Foley as a Eric – a successful, high-flying but stressed businessman who flies to Italy when he discovers that his daughter (Maia Reficco) has hatched a fairly out-there plan. She's taking up a small Italian town council's offer to buy a falling-down villa for a single Euro, aiming to DIY it into a lovely new home.
Her dad's now exactly sold on that, though, and hopes that he can talk her out of it and back into a more sensible life. That all gets derailed by her strength of will, but also by the fact that the town's mayor just happens to be beautiful, with sparks flying between her and Eric.
It looks like there will be a fun cast of locals in the Italian town to chip in and help with renovations, while Eric has a sub-plot concerning his abandoned past as a professional chef. Odds are he'll be able to rediscover his love of cooking at the same time as he finds a new romantic connection in the town.
All in all, La Dolce Villa looks pretty perfect for a chilled-out Valentine's Day evening – get a romantic dinner ready, queue it up and you're likely to have a great night. Don't necessarily expect storytelling innovation or jaw-dropping film-making, of course, since this is very much looking like a traditional and sweet-natured movie. Still, it's the sort of film that gets people subscribing, so Netflix will hope that it puts bums in seats when it arrives in a couple of weeks.
