It’s a shame that the romantic comedy doesn’t feel as cinematically necessary as it once did, with the genre relegated to streaming services or an On Demand shelf life (for the most part), even if they are blessed with genuine star talent. And whilst Michelle Danner‘s Under the Stars isn’t reinventing the wheel, it’s a serviceable and effortlessly charming outing that harkens back to a time when such mid-budgeted projects proved a worthy trip to the multiplexes, letting audiences escape into a love bubble with an attractive cast, a situational narrative, and a lush foreign location.
Victoria Vinuesa‘s script sets up a simple premise, one that offers little in surprise, but delights in all the tropes we love about the genre. A love story consisting of two separate strands, Under the Stars gives us our eventual lovers in the form of Alex Pettyfer‘s Ian and Toni Collette‘s Audrey. Now, before you start thinking that it’s not the most obvious pairing and, perhaps, Vinuesa’s script will delight in a type of May-December romance, Ian and Audrey are related (she’s his aunt), but they are the film’s eventual lovers, individually, as they both travel to Puglia, Italy for very different reasons, but ultimately fall for the region and two of its occupants.
Ian is a pretty classic romantic comedy figure in that he’s accessibly handsome, sweet natured, if a little aimless, and, as a writer, is facing a sense of artistic insecurity. His home life is also suffering off the back of his own career frustrations, and his girlfriend, Kate (Jessica Serfaty), isn’t feeling the love. We can pretty much sense where this is going to go and, off the advice of his chic, non-filtered aunt (Collette is quite fabulous in the role), he sets off to the Italian countryside in the hopes of finding inspiration to finish his romance novel.
The masseria he stays at is travel-porn at its most extreme, and we can only think, “Ian, if you don’t find romantic inspiration here, you won’t find it anywhere!” Additionally, he literally bumps into the masseria’s manager, Arianna (Eva De Dominici), in a perfect genre set-up where their distaste for one another will naturally graduate to romance. Danner isn’t going to make it easy for them though, so over the course of Under the Stars‘ 100 minutes we deal with Ian and Arianna being romantically thwarted, including the unexpected arrival of Kate, wondering if she’s made a mistake in letting Ian walk away.
Whilst we wait for Ian and Arianna to finally admit they love each other, Under the Stars sets up a second love story for Audrey, who, against her better judgement, can’t help but be charmed by Arianna’s father, the owner of the masseria, Giacomo (Andy Garcia). Whether it’s because there’s something refreshing about two characters of a certain age being afforded the type of love story usually reserved for younger players (like Ian and Arianna), or that Collette and Garcia are so damn charming, it’s this love story that ultimately proves more sweeping and romantic; Audrey is so clear-eyed and more of a realist that her being unable to resist the magnetism of Giacomo feels all the more amorous.
Whilst as a romantic comedy it isn’t perhaps the funniest venture – it’s the type of movie to elicit a warm smile as opposed to a belly laugh – Under the Stars is all so very agreeable that its shortcomings are forgiven. Pettyfer, De Dominici, Collette and Garcia all make for fine romcom figures, playing off each other with a certain joy, making us as jealous viewers feel comfortable in their presence.
THREE STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
Under the Stars is now available On Digital and On Demand in the United States.
