With characters who range from annoying to bland, empty allusions to Romeo and Juliet, and a plot that seems forced, “Love in the Villa” misses the mark.
Netflix’s “Love in the Villa” by Mark Steven Johnson debuted on September 1, 2022. Julie, a teacher from Minneapolis, is so obsessed with Romeo and Juliet that she even reads it to her disinterested third-grade students. After Julie’s longtime boyfriend, Brandon, dumps her hours before their would-be romantic getaway to Verona, Italy, she decides to go alone. When she arrives in Verona, she finds herself sharing the villa with a total stranger, Charlie Fletcher. Silvio, the innkeeper, explains that there has been a booking mistake. Because no other villas are available, Julie and Charlie must either convince the other to leave or agree to share the villa. The villa, despite its enormous size, has only one bedroom. When Charlie claims the bedroom, Julie takes the couch. They spend the next few days unsuccessfully trying to convince, cajole, and annoy the other into leaving.
One of the biggest weaknesses when it comes to the plot of “Love in the Villa” is the lack of development between the main characters, Julie and Charlie. The movie follows the classic enemies to lovers trope, in which the two love interests shift from wanting to claw each others’ eyes out to falling in love. In this story, the hatred part is believable, but the shift in feelings seems to happen in less than 10 minutes. An instant change in dynamic, which feels rushed and unrealistic, leads Charlie and Julie into falling in love. The original rivalry between the two characters feels drawn out; however, the relationship development seems to happen in an instant.
While the relationship development happened far too quickly, the character development didn’t seem to happen at all. Charlie is rude and selfish throughout the movie, but then he suddenly becomes a good person when he goes to a wine festival with Julie. Seeing more of his character development would’ve made the movie far more interesting and made the relationship development make more sense.
Additionally, the plot is filled to the brim with overused tropes that audiences have seen thousands of times before. From the character’s unoriginal personalities to the completely predictable plot twists, Love in the Villa doesn’t offer anything new. It follows the same exact formula of nearly every rom-com out there.
So many Romeo and Juliet references fill this movie that it would be reasonable to assume that both characters die in the end. Audiences trying to follow the plot might wish for such an ending. The similarities don’t extend beyond quirky details. The lack of depth in the movie’s references misses an opportunity to draw a meaningful parallel to Romeo and Juliet.
The biggest strength of the movie is the setting. It takes place in Verona, Italy, which is filled with beautiful buildings and stunning scenery. The soundtrack, filled with energetic Italian songs, adds to the incredible atmosphere.
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