| As has become common with so many Netflix comedies and romances these days, if you can get past the ridiculous premise, then there is a lovely tale of moving on and finding your next chapter in life. Eric (Scott Foley) is off to a remote village in Italy when his daughter has announced she’s buying an old villa for one euro. As Eric puts it, that’s a “bat-dad” signal if he’s ever seen one and is off to help get his misguided daughter out of whatever deal she has gotten herself into. | | 2025
Directed by: Mark Waters
Screenplay by: Elizabeth Hackett, Hilary Galanoy
Starring: Scott Foley, Maia Reficco,
and Violante Placido
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The premise itself is fine, but the film got fuzzy on the details and turned it into a mishmash of illogical and unrealistic plot turns. It is based in reality. Small towns in Italy are starting to die off with people moving into the city and many historical homes falling vacant and into disrepair. Towns have gone through ownership records to identify which dilapidated and vacant homes have no owners or heirs and are selling them off for the low, low price of one euro. It is then the new owner’s responsibility to fix it up and live in it or run it as a business. That’s how it works in real life; an inventive solution to a real problem.
Such a deal is sure to attract people who have a dream of owning an Italian home and have a rose-coloured glasses view of home repair. Perhaps flighty people like Eric’s daughter Olivia. Olivia (Maia Reficco) is a young woman who studied abroad in Italy and stayed, basically floating through life as she changes plans frequently.
In the film’s version of this scheme, Olivia buys this home for one euro, the town sets her up with a contractor (okay), she pays for renovations herself (with her dad’s money of course, but logic still intact), and then the town will reimburse her for all renovation costs – huh? So in this version of reality, Olivia is just temporarily floating the town some money. But wait, it gets so much worse.
The mayor of the town has sold Olivia this property without actually owning it and having the rights to it. The film likes pointing that out multiple times at the beginning, so it is completely unsurprising when that fact comes back to screw everything up in the end. The mayor is also hanging out and overseeing all aspects of the renovation every single day. Obviously the writers have never met a small town mayor, because no that’s not her job. Why does the town appoint a contractor if the mayor is literally going to oversee the entire project herself? So much nonsense gets in the way of an otherwise good story. In real life, these projects take 1-3 years, in this movie’s world, it takes 30 days. Eric also has a calendar which just says “Day 1, Day 2, [etc…]” and the mayor remarks that she loves how organized he is. That’s just counting, madame mayor, not organization.
Scott Foley’s Eric is a good character. A widower who owns his own restaurant consulting company, he recognizes that he over-manages too much, and Olivia frequently has to stand up for herself to force Eric to realize that she’s an adult who can make her own decisions.
The rest of the movie is obviously a romance. I’d normally be all for it but Eric’s love interest is the mayor who is pretty much single-handedly responsible for all the nonsense that ruins the plot. She is just such a ridiculous character that it’s impossible to root for their relationship. Meanwhile Olivia’s love interest is relegated to a much smaller story arc, so there’s just not enough time invested in that relationship to care about it either.
Eric and Olivia each finding their next chapter in life is a really lovely told and sweet main theme for the movie. All of the nonsense that goes along with the plot causes the movie to lose its way for an otherwise enjoyable romantic dramedy.
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