The "love" portion of this film turns out to be self-love, valuable but not as romantic as I was hoping for. The backdrop of both Rome and Florence is spectacular and truly the best part of the film...the location cinematography.
This is the story of Lena Emerson, who was raised without a father in New York. Her single mother, who is her whole world, dies of cancer just as Lena is graduating from high school. Lena's mom made her promise to take the mother daughter trip to Italy for the Summer before college that they had planned. Lena's mom set up a few surprises for Lena on this trip...starting with her staying with her mom's best friend and her Italian godmother...who gives Lena her mother's journal from her time in Italy. She also is gifted her mom's camera and pushed out of her comfort zone...by just about everyone including to contradictory boys who she meets one a wealthy heir and the other an aspiring cook.
The bigger relationship is discovering herself and who her father is.
Again this was about self-love, the film was beautiful visually, but seemed choppy. I know this is based on a book, maybe there was a lot of material that they had to leave out? The film left me wanting. Howard was probably my favorite character along with Lena's crazy best friend Addie. Not a recommendation...unless you are craving some beautiful shots around Rome and Florence...although you might be able to find a better film for that, a few come to mind.
Didn't hate it, but didn't love it.
