Little Italy is a 2018 romantic/comedy about a young couple who must navigate a blossoming romance, amidst a war between their families’ competing pizza restaurants.
Right from the very start, it’s not like Donald Petrie‘s latest romcom Little Italy is going for much challenge, the light tone, giddy dual narration, and basic cable family-friendly spin giving this a sort of fable-like flavor. There’s absolutely nothing new in the mix of course, the storybook whimsy perfectly suited for what it intends, even if it’s perfectly forgettable as well, the film simply refusing to bend a rule or cross a line. Considering the strong cast and talent behind the camera, it’s a little disappointing to see it stick so rigidly to the predictable, keeping this pizza story one with no toppings.
Leo (Hayden Christensen) and Nikki (Emma Roberts) have been the closest of friends since grade school, their fathers Sal (Adam Ferrara) and Vince (Gary Basaraba) former partners in running Pizza Napoli in Little Italy. Nowadays though, the fathers are enemies, rivals at each other’s throats with restaurants right next door. Meanwhile, Leo has joined the family business and dreams of opening his own shop and Nikki has moved to London to become a world-renowned chef, studying under master chef Corrine (Jane Seymour). However, she’s forced to come home for a short stay, and once back in the neighborhood, old flames stir again, as do long time bitterness, leading to a competition for love and the best pizza in town.
This isn’t exactly new territory for Petrie, his film debut in 1988 being the classic Mystic Pizza with newcomer Julia Roberts (Emma is Julia’s niece). It’s a similar story of sorts, but somehow, this latest iteration has lost a lot of the edge that first film established. These are tried and true characters, put through the cinematic ringer a few times, and for much of the film, it feels likes it’s trying to be a sort of whiz-bang stage production with fast talkers and overdone personalities always on the move. Everyone has something sharp and purposeful to say and there’s not a perfectly choreographed bit of action out of step to try and give it zing.
There’s quite a list of names on the roster, with Alyssa Milano as Nikki’s mother, Andrea Martin and a grandmother and the always terrific Danny Aiello as a grandfather (these two having some of the best moments in the movie). This is clearly an awe-shucks romance with all the right parts in play but the film just can’t seem to find a way to put it all together so it sings with any joy. Christensen does pretty well, perfectly clinging to the standards and Roberts is very likeable, however the movie is trying to spin a few too many plates, and in a film like this, that’s more distracting than entertaining.
The real problem is that Little Italy is just to bland, with nothing we don’t expect happening and the whole show moving steadily to an ending that is threadbare to the point of see through. Sure, some might say don’t mess with a recipe that works, and absolutely Petrie is working hard to offerup a very familiar experience, but this is just too unoriginal to matter, pizza lover or not.