★★½ (2½ out of 4)
Kevin James is a tremendously appealing actor, sometimes in tremendously awful movies (“Paul Bart: Mall Cop,” anyone?). But “Solo Mio” gets a pass on the strength of his perfect casting in “Solo Mio,” an Italy-set romcom with James as its hilarious and heartfelt center.
The Emmy winner for “King of Queens” plays Matt Taylor, a fourth-grade art teacher living the dream for a destination wedding in Italy with his true love Heather (Julie Ann Emery). When his dream girl crushes his fantasy by jilting him at the altar, Matt is virtually a dead promise walking until he decides to do the bought-and-paid-for honeymoon tour alone—there are no refunds this late. He’s not exactly doing the tour with joy overflowing. His sorrow feels contagious.
See this romcom for the soft side of Kevin James and Italian scenery that’s gorgeous in any language. That’s the only way to come out ahead.
Matt appreciates the moral support offered from other honeymoon couples, including Meghan (Alyson Hannigan) and Julian (Kim Coates)—they’ve married each other three times—and therapist Donna (Julee Cerda) who wed her patient Neil (Jonathan Roumie). But these supporting characters seem manufactured from the flattest sitcom cardboard.
Matt is pretty much alone in that crowd, except when he wanders into a local café and meets its charming owner Gia (Nicole Grimaudo), who clearly feels a bond with Matt and his situation for reasons that will later be made clear. It’s a conveniently contrived love match, but you knew it was coming, didn’t you?
You either go with the flow of “Solo Mio” or you reject its invitation to the movie equivalent of a warm hug. Your loss if you don’t RSVP. Hollywood has been turning out tales of lonely people finding romance in exotic locales for decades, usually with a woman as its center. Think Katharine Hepburn in Venice in “Summertime” or Diane Lane in “Under the Tuscan Sun” or Amanda Seyfried in Verona in “Letters to Juliet” or Julia Roberts in “Eat Pray Love.” You get the picture—playing lonely-hearts is a lady’s game.
Not this time. James, recalling the Oscar-winning Ernest Borgnine in “Marty,” picks up the mantle of a lovable Cupid reject with a gift for laughs that doesn’t betray his sensitivity. Having started out playing second banana to his friend Adam Sandler in such films as “50 First Dates,” “Grown Ups” “Hotel Transylvania,” and “I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry,” James steps into a full out romcom lead. He nails every nuance in a film otherwise lacking in shading. The laughs hardly come tumbling down when they go on a disastrous bike tour.
Mostly, it’s a fish-out-of-water farce as Matt tries to find his place in a crowd. “Solo Mio” is the strained work of the Kinnane Brothers. And get this, there are five of them, two credited for writing the script with James, two directors, and one editor. There’s no way I can figure out who did what, but it really should not have taken five people to come up with something so ordinari as they say in Roma. See “Solo Mio” for the soft side of Kevin James and Italian scenery that’s gorgeous in any language. That’s the only way to come out ahead.