# Love in the Villa

Love in the Villa is a 2022 American romantic comedy film written, directed and produced by Mark Steven Johnson. It stars Kat Graham, Tom Hopper, and Raymond Ablack.
Julie Hutton follows her lifelong dream to visit romantic Verona, Italy, shortly after a breakup, only to find her reserved villa is double-booked, so she has to share it with a cynical British man.
The film was released on Netflix on September 1, 2022.

## Plot

Third-grade teacher Julie Hutton is fascinated with Verona as it is the setting for William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. In an effort to explain why she is so excited for the trip, she unsuccessfully tries to expose her students to the centuries-old love story.
Julie goes over in great deal the itinerary she has planned out for the long-awaited trip to Verona with her boyfriend Brandon of four years. Overwhelmed, he abruptly ends their relationship.
Julie therefore finds herself traveling alone for what she had hoped would be a week of romance. After an uncomfortable flight in economy class, her bags are lost and she has a stressful taxi ride with Uberto.
On arrival at the villa, Julie finds it has been double-booked as it was advertised on two diffferent apartment-sharing sites. The owner Silvio suggests she share the place with Charlie, the other tenant and a wine expert, as the annual Vinitaly European wine expo is monopolozing the housing availability. He waves it off as their destiny.
Julie hurries to follow her jam-packed itinerary but soon is forced to toss it. Feeling dejected, she returns to the villa to find Charlie has read her personal journal. He equates going back to an ex as putting on dirty underwear after showering. Julie hangs up on Brandon.
Charlie explains his job with a UK wine importer, in which he must get exclusivity rights on wines cheaply to maximize their profits. Soon after, Julie discovers his extreme allergies when street cats come pouring in when cracking a window. When she complains about him on the phone to her friend Rob, he suggests she drive him out.
Julie buys lots of green olives, a known attractant to cats, surrounds Charlie with them, and opens the window. He wakes covered in welts and in pain, and shortly "delares war" on her. As Charlie is leaving the apartment, he comes across her bags being delivered from the airline. He sends them back, saying she was institutionalized and wants them donated.
Julia retaliates by getting the locks changed and then contacts the police to report Charlie as a thief. After being released from jail, he comes back even angrier. He creates a public shrine with bits from Julie's diary about her breakup with Brandon. Charlie seemingly calls a truce and offers to share a meal with her. He prepares pastissada de caval, a typical dish of Verona. When Julie discovers it is horse, they end up in a food fight.
The police are contacted when the commotion reaches the plaza below. Warned they will get overnight jail time if they again disrupt the peace, Charlie later apologizes to Julia for everything. He admits he substituted portabello mushrooms for the horse, and they spend the evening getting drunk on wine.
Walking around town, Julie makes a wish at the Fontana Madonna Verona, then takes them to the bronze statue of Juliet where they both make wishes. The next day, she takes Charlie on the Juliet tour so he can see it from the eyes of a romantic. Julie reveals her excessively romantic parents caused her to set the bar high; he explains he grew up with four brothers and no mother.
That evening at the Vinitalia event, Julie lets Carlo Caruso know how wonderful his wine is, inadvertently blocking Charlie's company's offer. Charlie asks her to dance and they almost kiss. Arriving back at the villa, his fiancée Cassie is there to surprise him, which takes him aback as they were on a break.
Brandon shows up in the morning. In the evening he and Julie end up getting invited to share a table with Cassie and Charlie. Julie gets very drunk so they leave. Charlie breaks up with Cassie, follows the others, and inadvertently sees Brandon propose. Charlie misses Julile's rejection. Silvio convinces Charlie to track down Julie. When he does, they both realize they have fallen in love.

## Cast

* Kat Graham as Julie Hutton
* Tom Hopper as Charlie Fletcher
* Raymond Ablack as Brandon
* Laura Hopper as Cassie
* Sean Amsing as Rob
* Emilio Solfrizzi as Silvio D'Angelo
* Vincent Riotta as Carlo Caruso
* Saverio Sculli as Amore Airline Passenger

## Soundtrack

Ryan Shore composed the original score for the film.

## Release

The film was released on September 1, 2022 on Netflix.

## Reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 32% of 22 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 4.7/10. Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 50 out of 100, based on five critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.
Prateek Sur of Outlook India gave it a rating of 2/5. Adrian Horton of Guardian also gave it a rating of 2/5 and calls it an "immediately forgettable Netflix romcom."

### Awards and nominations

Ryan Shore received a 2023 Music+Sound Awards Best Original Feature Score nomination. This film was also nominated for the Best Music Supervision for a Non-Theatrically Released Film at 13th Annual Guild of Music Supervisors Awards.