*** outta *****

3 outta 5

Little Italy may be full of clichés about Italian heritage and romantic comedies but it does have a dopey, aw-shucks charm.  Probably because since this is a Canadian film everyone is really likable and even lifelong blood feuds are just kind of quaint. If anything, it’s just somewhat dull because it doesn’t do anything new with the genre. But for a comedy it’s a bit of bad sign when some of the funniest stuff is in the post-credits blooper reel.  Also of note, the director of Little Italy is Donald Petrie and 30 years ago he directed star Emma Roberts’ aunt, Julia Roberts, in the romantic comedy Mystic Pizza. Maybe Petrie has a romantic comedy pizza trilogy starring a Roberts planned to land every 30 years. 

Nikki (Emma Roberts) is working to be a chef in the U.K. and her domineering boss, Corrine (Jane Seymour) tells her to go back to her home in Toronto, Canada to get her Visa straightened out. Home for Nikki is in Little Italy where she meets her childhood friend, Leo (Hayden Christensen).  Their families used to have a joint pizza parlor but their fathers, Sal (Adam Ferrara) and Vince (Gary Basaraba) have been feuding for decades. While Nikki and Leo rekindle their relationship, their grandparents, Franca (Andrea Martin) and Carlo (Danny Aiello) have also started a romance. Soon it is possible these eternally feuding families may come together through the power of love. Like quite a lot of romantic comedies, it’s taken the basic “feuding families and kids in love” story of Romeo and Juliet. But this time there’s less suicide and more organic pizza!

The movie opens with a flashback of kid Leo and kid Nikki that looks like it takes place in the 1950s but the furthest back it could be set would be the late 90s or early 2000s. Also when the kids grow up they become Hayden Christensen and Emma Roberts but the kid versions of them don’t really look a damn thing like the adults. At least one could kind of pretended that Jake Lloyd as Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars grew up to be Christensen.

The script is fairly trite with a lot of groaners like “You can take the girl out of Little Italy but you can’t take Little Italy out of the girl!” or Nikki saying a slice of Pizza “tastes like home” and various pronouncements that are supposed to be sagely profound. Also the film is bookended by joint voice over narration by both Nikki and Leo which is trying to be cute but is maddeningly irritating.

The script is better at random snippy quips, like when Nikki walks in the door and her mother goes “she’s gotten so skinny, where’s her ass?”  Alyssa Milano plays Nikki’s mother and Milano is actually quite hilarious. Also the feuding fathers Sal and Vince reach basically Three Stooges level of physical absurdity and dimwittedness. Seymour has a small role, the credits even list her as a “Special Appearance” which doesn’t imply something larger, but she is funny while ripping into her cooking students.

Romantic comedy clichés are dutifully trotted out in Little Italy.  The third act is a steamroller of clichés as there is a climatic public completion, a public declaration of love, and madcap race to the airport to once again declare even more love. Leo’s has a gay best friend he confides in, which is something that happens fairly often in the genre, however, this does offer a unique twist that his best friend Luigi (Andrew Phung) is Chinese yet talks like an Italian from Little Italy. One thing the movie does actually accurately capture a bit about the Southern Ontario city living is that it’s quite a cultural mosaic. Even in a section of town dominated by Italians there’s still different ethnicities hanging out in the same group. The gag of the overworked Indian waiters working for both restaurants is a bit weak although the girl gets in some good quips as she barks at her male competitor.

Despite their characters being cliché ridden Christensen and Roberts have decent chemistry. Unsurprisingly, he is a womanizer who is in love with his childhood best friend and she’s too stuck up about her career to notice. There is a montage set to Shawn Smith of them traveling around Little Italy which could be pretty corny but both Christensen and Roberts sell it as being actually kind of fun. Roberts herself has some moments where she adds some character to a thinly written part like when she tries to stand up straighter next to a knockout hottie or promises her boss to burn a ratty pizza shirt. Truthfully, the more endearing romantic pairing of the film is Aiello and Martin as grandparents finding love late in life. The generational gap offers up some easy gags, the old people are astonished by Starbucks coffee!, but Martin and Aiello make the materiel better.

Little Italy will not reinvigorate the romantic comedy genre nor does it offer anything original. But it is breezy and fun. Heck, this movie got a PG rating in Ontario and gets an R-rating in the States which is bizarre since this is downright wholesome. It’s not great but it is comfort food.