Love the Italy-Romance Genre, 2010 ed.

I keep thinking about When in Rome. I fully intend to buy it. It leans to the comedy side of Romantic Comedy--hey-- if Danny DeVito and Napoleon Dynamite (what's his real name, anyway?) simultaneously chase after a girl you know some laughs will pop out. The dreamy Tad Hamilton guy, as in WinADateWith... is again... dreamy, but in this movie he's so nice! Also high on the dreamy-scale is Kristin Bell's total glam-sophisticated job at the Guggenheim in NYC.

This movie contains: street-magicians, both a very good and a very bad wedding toast, magic Roman fountains, catholic priests who play poker, Italian folk dancing, a date in complete darkness, self-absorbed male models, lightning storms, Angelica Houston, and a winning end-scene I quote all the time (but don't want to spoil).

Most recently I saw Letters to Juliet. I love Vanessa Redgrave as an old lady!* Such a lovely film. Less comedy > More romance. The opening credits was a collection of paintings and photographs of people kissing from all ages of time that had breathtaking adorability. In a plot reminiscent of Only You (easily the best Italy-Romance comedy ever,) the characters drive all over Tuscany trying to track down a guy with only his name as a reference. Letters to Juliet has a fabulous ending--something very important in my romance movie choices; because yes, we knew Jane wouldn't end up with Mr. Lefroy, but did Becoming Jane really have to end so badly? I think not.

This movie contains: Italian food, sweet and whimsical romance, gorgeous scenery (including Sienna, where Dylan lived for a summer), an unbelievably dashing British guy--hello, British abs!--whoamagosh, he's charming, the original Camelot movie's Gwenevere & Lancelot back together again (as different characters, obviously), and again-- a dreamy NYC job--this time as a fact checker for the New Yorker.

*please watch her performance of an elderly woman with dementia in Evening.