Poor Marisa Tomei. She made the fastest career beeline from the B-List to the A-List and back to B thanks to this overly formulaic 1994 romantic comedy. Directed by Norman Jewison in a dreamy manner that seems designed to repeat the unexpected success of "Moonstruck", the movie is placed squarely on Tomei's shoulders to carry right after her questionable Oscar win for "My Cousin Vinny", and she is unfortunately given a petulant, irritating character to play here. As Faith Corvatch, she is a Pittsburgh schoolteacher about to get married when destiny seems to interject with the appearance of a man whose name, Damon Bradley, was predestined to be the identity of his soul mate. A chance phone call leads her impulsively to Italy where she leads a bumbling Clouseau-like chase to find him. Accompanied by her sensible but supportive sister Kate, she misses him in Venice but thinks she lands him in Rome. He instead turns out to be a designer show salesman named Peter Wright. Smitten with Faith, Wright decides to help her find Damon but only to make her realize that he is her soul mate.
Tomei has obviously been positioned as an Audrey Hepburn-type gamine, but her persona is too jittery and agitating to make the ruse work. She is also unfortunately overshadowed by her co-stars. Robert Downey, Jr. shows genuine comic élan as Wright, and it's unfortunate that it takes nearly 45 minutes before his character even shows up to complicate matters. The sharp-tongued Bonnie Hunt is almost too good as Kate as her character goes through her own sketchily-written marital trauma at the same time. She comes across as so clever, likable and well-grounded that she takes the focus off Tomei. The rest of the cast seem to play up their respective stereotypes - Joaquin de Almeida as a Roman lothario chasing Kate, Fisher Stevens as Kate's lunk-headed contractor husband and Billy Zane in surfer-dude mode as Faith's possible love interest. What does work is the beautiful cinematography by Ingmar Bergman's great cameraman, Sven Nykvist. Venice, Rome and especially Positano on the Amalfi Coast rarely have looked more inviting on screen. The 2004 DVD has no extras other than the original theatrical trailer.
Tomei has obviously been positioned as an Audrey Hepburn-type gamine, but her persona is too jittery and agitating to make the ruse work. She is also unfortunately overshadowed by her co-stars. Robert Downey, Jr. shows genuine comic élan as Wright, and it's unfortunate that it takes nearly 45 minutes before his character even shows up to complicate matters. The sharp-tongued Bonnie Hunt is almost too good as Kate as her character goes through her own sketchily-written marital trauma at the same time. She comes across as so clever, likable and well-grounded that she takes the focus off Tomei. The rest of the cast seem to play up their respective stereotypes - Joaquin de Almeida as a Roman lothario chasing Kate, Fisher Stevens as Kate's lunk-headed contractor husband and Billy Zane in surfer-dude mode as Faith's possible love interest. What does work is the beautiful cinematography by Ingmar Bergman's great cameraman, Sven Nykvist. Venice, Rome and especially Positano on the Amalfi Coast rarely have looked more inviting on screen. The 2004 DVD has no extras other than the original theatrical trailer.