Note: This story contains light spoilers.
The stakes are impossibly high for You, Me & Tuscany.
And for many Black women, that unfair notion is so relatable, because we live it every. single. day.
With an estimated 600,000 high-achieving Black women laid off in the last year from the workforce, the way that You, Me & Tuscany now has the fate of all Black romantic comedies (in all of its forms) relying on its box office success, is a weight we know well.
There's no room for a low productivity day, low revenue, illness, or even a bad mood. At the least, Black women will be told they don't fit in or they're not a team player. Or at the very worst, they could lose their livelihood.
For the little engine that's doing, You, Me & Tuscany delighted during its first weekend in theaters, opening in fourth place with $8M. It's also got an "A-" Cinema Score. And the competition is steep, with The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, Zendaya and Robert Pattinson's The Drama, and Project Hail Mary continuing to be huge audience draws.
Most importantly, it's doing what a rom-com should: providing an afternoon with the girls, some popcorn and all the concession goodies, and a beautiful leading man.
But despite all the pressure about it needing to be box office gold, the film's protagonist is the true win for Black women: Anna (played by the real life Disney princess, Halle Bailey) is a delightful reminder to embrace whimsy, take chances, live in the moment, and that it's perfectly okay to make a ton of mistakes on the way.
So, a little about me that will probably explain a lot about me before we continue: I have a friend who calls me the brown Molly Ringwald. I guess I give a lot of '80s rom-com energy.
And she's not wrong. If I'm not reading a cozy mystery (The Golden Girls murder series is my current banger), I am usually into some sort of romantic novel with heavy toppings of all the tropes. And I've even been tinkering with one of my own while happily being a BuzzFeeder, and hope to see it on the big screen one day.
And this is all why I'm so drawn to Anna. She is the quintessential rom-com lead; she is not afraid to be fancy free. Most importantly, Anna is the antidote for every real-life Black girl who's told time and time again that "the world's not all sunshine and rainbows."
And no, Anna's life isn't "sunshine and rainbows" when we first meet her. She left culinary school to care for her mother who fell ill, and now she's dealing with the grief after losing her mom. She's struggling to make ends meet. But it hasn't dimmed her dreams for a big, happy life.
So we see her go for her version of happiness. Now, I will not shy away from some of her antics. While watching the film, I whispered to my friend that I love Anna, "but she's kind of a problem." Like literally, she is in a wedding dress because she's pretending to marry a man she met once.
But she's able to move with the whimsy usually only afforded white rom-com leads (and Jennifer Lopez, when she's playing an Italian American character). It's when she pulled out three credit cards to pay for one hotel bar cheeseburger. And yet she still decides to travel from New York City to Tuscany and believed that everything would just work out when she got there. That's some Kate Hudson-level rom-com behavior, and I love that for Halle.
It's also evident in the opening scenes when she was strutting around town in her boss's expensive clothes and walking her pure-bred pooch, because we all know that would not end well in real life for a young Black girl. That scene let me know Halle could really spread her wings onscreen so the Black women in the audience could recline safely and get swept away in her (sometimes chaotic) storyline.
Simply put, Anna does all the things Black women are not encouraged to do, even in movies that are meant for a bit of fluff and daydreams.
And thanks to Halle's real-life Disney princess aura (hey, Ariel), you just have a feeling that it's all going to work out just beautifully for Anna.
Anna's a little bit of a wholesome anti-hero: She's kind of a mess, and that's her appeal. But for almost two hours, she's given full license to be herself, and that helped me to unclench my shoulders in my recliner seat at the theater, knowing that in the end, her fairytale would work out for her.
Now, I'm not suggesting to go all, "What Would Anna Do?" with your life because there are some finer parts of the law that absolutely everyone should be aware of. Breaking and entering into a magical villa overseas is not recommended.
But, Anna gives us space to believe in the best outcome for ourselves, too. That Black women can eat, pray, and love in Italy and maybe even find the man of their dreams.
That maybe we can set aside all the "shoulds" for a couple of hours, put the phone on DND, and do what really lights us up for once.
That those dreams — whether owning a restaurant or writing the next great American novel — deserve our time and attention, and are worth pursuing amid all the responsibility.
Did I also mention find the man of your dreams?
You, Me & Tuscany is in theaters now. I personally can't wait for it to start streaming so it can be my comfort watch.
Have you seen You, Me & Tuscany? Let me know what you thought of it in the comments!
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