For many American teens, college is the great undiscovered land. But in the romantic comedy ‘Love & Gelato’, Lina (Susanna Skaggs) has just lost her beloved mother to cancer. Before enrolling in her freshman year of college at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, she must fulfill her mother’s dying wish for her. Her mother made a drastic trip to Italy in her youth and her request is that Lina would follow in her footsteps. The cautious Lina can find a way to worry about something, but magnanimously she agrees to spend her summer in Rome.
Lina is inevitably moved by the beauty of the city – the food, the views and most importantly the beautiful begging boys. She falls in love with Alessandro (Saul Nanni), a sociable blue-eyed butterfly en route to a trap in Boston. And to prevent Alessandro from turning out too good to be true, warm and welcoming chef Lorenzo (Tobia De Angelis) takes an interest in her fish-out-of-water charms. With her mother’s old friends and Lorenzo as her guides, Lina finds a purpose in Italy, and even dares to look for her Italian father, the man her mother left behind.
This is a story in which the characters court each other with unsophisticated naivety, and the film is shot in an equally modest way. Writer and director Brandon Camp opts for a cheerfully overexposed, comic tone. It’s the kind of movie that’s more interested in the appeal of a good Italian accent than in finding new, or even particularly beautiful, ways to film and see Rome. The deliberate softness is pleasant, but lacks freshness, like a midnight pasta heated in the microwave.
Love & Gelato
Not judged. Running time: 1 hour 50 minutes. Watch on Netflix.