{"id":285304,"date":"2025-11-11T13:09:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T13:09:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/285304\/"},"modified":"2025-11-11T13:09:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T13:09:07","slug":"under-the-stars-review-picturesque-italian-setting-is-backdrop-for-ai-prompt-of-a-romcom-movies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/285304\/","title":{"rendered":"Under the Stars review \u2013 picturesque Italian setting is backdrop for AI prompt of a romcom | Movies"},"content":{"rendered":"

Anyone who thinks it\u2019s easy to make a romcom should take a look at this. It has all the ingredients: good-looking leads (Alex Pettyfer, Eva De Dominici), picturesque locations (the film is mainly set in Puglia, and benefits from funding from the region), lightly comic music underlining the scenes, charismatic veterans in supporting roles (\u201cwith Toni Collette<\/a> \u2026 and Andy Garcia\u201d), transparently engineered third-act jeopardy, and so on and so forth. But like a failed souffl\u00e9 on Bake Off, it never rises to the necessary level.<\/p>\n

Pettyfer plays the hero, a romance novelist named Ian. (Yes, Ian. The sitcom Peep Show made great capital out of the ludicrousness of naming a baby Ian in the 21st century. Without wishing to do down the name, it\u2019s an odd choice and speaks to a wider tone-deafness in the script.) In fact the plotline for Under the Stars is the inverse of, say, a great Richard Curtis one, in which implausible scenarios feel wholly realistic: there\u2019s nothing particularly impossible about Under the Stars, and yet it all feels clunkily unlikely.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Perhaps none of this would matter if there was more of that elusive chemistry between the leads, but despite physically resembling the results of an AI prompt for Attractive Romantic Comedy<\/a> Protagonists, observing Pettyfer and De Dominici\u2019s characters attempt to strike a spark is like watching someone trying to light a fire using damp toilet roll and a magnifying glass. Early on, Collette\u2019s novelist character is watching a television adaptation of her work. \u201cSome moron has made a miniseries out of Last Lovers in Paradise,\u201d she sniffs. \u201cI mean, the actors are trying their best, but I\u2019m telling you it is mortifying.\u201d Well, quite.<\/p>\n

Under the Stars is on digital platforms from 17 November.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Anyone who thinks it\u2019s easy to make a romcom should take a look at this. It has all…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":285305,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[88,206],"class_list":{"0":"post-285304","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-movies"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285304\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}