FilmSnobReviews

Title: Love and Gelato
MPAA Rating: TV-14
Director: Brandon Camp
Starring: Susanna Skaggs, Tobias De Angelis, Anjelika Washington
Runtime: 1 hr 50 mins

What It Is: Young Lina (Skaggs) is visiting Italy as a part of a trip to reconnect with her deceased mother’s experience. This is a part of a promise made to her mother when she was sick. While she’s there for the summer she’ll discover her love of the people, the city, and most of all the gelato. Oh, and she’ll find out that perhaps summer love isn’t something you need to find on your first visit to Rome.

What We Think: By the numbers. That’s the best way to explain this one. Two dueling suitors is a trope that many RomComs utilize and sometimes it can be done in such a way that it really does work. Here it seems more forced as we don’t care enough about a guy a so that when guy b arrives we know in our hearts of hearts. We know every single twist, turn, and angle of the film. It doesn’t quite have the narrative charisma to pull it off. There’s a lot to like from a simplicity standard. Everything is simple and easy. There’s no mental challenge to the audience here. Making it an easy watch.

Our Grade: C-, You look at a film like this and there isn’t a whole lot of things that one can expect from this. It makes Italy as a whole look gorgeous and setting does a lot for romantic comedies. Think about that? Most if not all of the most iconic films of the genre have a distinct setting. So this film has that going for it. It doesn’t have much else sadly. If you want an easy romantic piece of schlocky storytelling this’ll do. Even if it is about 15 to 20 minutes too long.