Here are Cinephile Corner’s 10 recommendations for movies like Under the Tuscan Sun:
You, Me & Tuscany
If the dream of Under the Tuscan Sun is waking up in a crumbling villa surrounded by cypress trees, You, Me & Tuscany sells the same fantasy to a new generation. Halle Bailey and Regé-Jean Page are an easy pair to root for, and director Kat Coiro shot on location in the Tuscan countryside, so the postcard scenery does plenty of the heavy lifting. The trouble is that the script leans on every rom-com shortcut in the book, and the sun-drenched setting can only distract from that for so long.
Luca
Few films make Italy look as inviting as Luca. Enrico Casarosa’s summer fable follows two young sea monsters who pass as human boys in a seaside town on the Italian Riviera, and every frame is soaked in gelato colors and Vespa daydreams. It isn’t among the top tier of Pixar movies, since its story sticks closely to the studio’s formula, but as pure atmosphere it’s a lovely companion to Frances Mayes’ Tuscany.
Love of Your Life
Diane Lane’s Frances has to put herself back together after her marriage falls apart, and Love of Your Life charts a similar road through heartbreak toward something like hope. Rachel Morrison directs Margaret Qualley opposite Aaron Pierre in a Prime Video romance that earns its tears honestly. Qualley carries the film with an open, wounded warmth that makes the ache feel lived in.
Voicemails for Isabelle
Streaming rom-coms are rarely this charming. Leah McKendrick’s Voicemails for Isabelle pairs Zoey Deutch and Nick Robinson, and the two have the kind of loose, lived-in rapport that most of Netflix’s algorithm-friendly romances never find. Like Under the Tuscan Sun, it understands that the fun of the genre is watching someone stumble into a second chance they didn’t think they deserved.
The Love That Remains
Hlynur Pálmason follows up Godland with something far gentler. The Love That Remains watches an Icelandic family adjust to life after a separation, and it finds as much comedy as sorrow in the everyday business of starting over. It trades Tuscan sunflowers for windswept fjords, but the generosity toward people rebuilding their lives is the same.
Crossing Delancey
Joan Micklin Silver’s Crossing Delancey deserves a much bigger reputation than it has. Amy Irving plays a Manhattan bookstore employee whose grandmother hires a matchmaker, setting her up with Peter Riegert’s unassuming pickle seller. It’s a grown-up romance about figuring out what you actually want rather than what you’re supposed to want, the same lesson Frances learns one renovation mishap at a time.
Marriage Story
Under the Tuscan Sun skips past the divorce in a hurry. Marriage Story lives inside it. Noah Baumbach’s finest film pits Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver against each other across two coasts, and it’s as funny as it is devastating. Watch it as the painful prequel to a fresh start.
The Sun Never Sets
Joe Swanberg takes his improvisational style somewhere new with The Sun Never Sets, a love triangle starring Dakota Fanning and Jake Johnson that plays out under the endless daylight of the far north. The relationships are knotty and not always convincing, but there’s a pleasure in watching characters loosen up in an unfamiliar place, which is half the appeal of any travel romance.
Materialists
Celine Song’s follow-up to Past Lives casts Dakota Johnson as a New York matchmaker caught between a wealthy suitor played by Pedro Pascal and an old flame played by Chris Evans. Materialists doesn’t reach the heights of Song’s debut, and it wobbles as it tries to say something new, but its questions about what we really want from a partner will feel familiar to fans of Frances’ search.
People We Meet on Vacation
On paper, Netflix’s adaptation of Emily Henry’s bestseller should be a perfect fit here, with Emily Bader and Tom Blyth as longtime friends whose summer trips keep circling the question of whether they’re meant to be more. The setup is there, but the spark never catches, and the film feels oddly inert for a story built on chemistry. Consider it for the wanderlust rather than the romance.
READ MORE: 10 Movies Like You, Me & Tuscany, 10 Movies Like People We Meet on Vacation, The 35 Best Cozy Autumn Movies
