Solo Mio

This year's SOLO MIO was not my choice for a Saturday matinee.  Nothing against Kevin James and rom-coms in general, but...it didn't seem like my kind of thing.  Especially one to make the effort to get to a theater to see.  This seemed like a streamer at best. But it was my wife's birthday and we were hanging with her cousin, who suggested it as the weather was iffy for our planned hike.  He's a fan of Kevin, and was expecting something along the lines of PAUL BLART, MALL COP.  So he was taken aback by this low key, even solemn vehicle.  Essentially a comedy, but a with a certain palpable melancholia in every scene. 

Matt (James, perhaps at his most appealing) finds himself left at the altar when his fiancee Heather (Julie Ann Emery) gets cold feet.  In Italy.  She won't returns his calls or texts and eventually blocks him.  Matt is crushed, wondering what could've gone wrong.  During an opening montage we see how happy they were. 

The would-be groom learns he is unable to get a refund on the honeymoon package, so he decides to go solo on the planned excursions.  But it's pretty awkward riding a two-seater bicycle and dining alone.  This grabs the attention and sympathy of two other (rather irritating) couples. Julian (Kim Coates) and Meghan (Alyson Hannigan), forever battling.  We learn they were married and divorced to each other twice before.  Neil (Jonathan Roumie) married his therapist Donna (Julee Cerda), who treats him like a child. 

One day at a local cafe, Matt meets Gia (Nicole Grimaudo), who owns the place and retrieves his wallet from a gang of juvenile thieves.  She's attractive and friendly, offering to show him around and even joins him as a substitute wife on the excursions.  You can see where this is going.  Certainly you've seen a few romantic comedies in your day.  Likely on the Hallmark Channel.  But this film is at least a few notches above. 

SOLO MIO, released by Angel Studios, is a family friendly movie whose most potentially offensive content involves some mild scenes of drunkenness.  Directors/screenwriters Chuck and Dan Kinnane don't really break any new ground but do create this appealing vibe, capture the intoxication of Rome and the countryside.  Plenty of local color.  An appealing travelogue.  This is not at all the expected crude joke fest punctuated with heavy handed sentiment.  Rather a patient, gentle movie that handles this tender scenario wth taste and restraint.  The humor is understated most of the time.  Coates' character can be grating but never beyond tolerance.  

My favorite gag was a total psych-out involving what happens when Matt returns to his hotel room after shutting down a bar with a local named Sophia (Cristina Alby), an empathetic listening ear.  I was also tickled that a certain instrumental used in NAPOLEON DYNAMITE found its way into this movie, shortly before a concert sequence with Ed Sheeran.  I see I also neglected to mention that Andrea Bocelli will figure largely into the plot.