Picture: Netflix
The newest Rachael Leigh Cook rom-com, A Tourist’s Guide To Love, is now streaming, however do you have to give it a watch?
In my riveting & well-researched evaluation (naturally) for this 12 months’s big-name Netflix rom-com Your Place or Mine with Reese Witherspoon and Ashton Kutcher, I led with a short historical past of Netflix’s rom-com revival beginning in 2018 with (prefer it or not) The Kissing Booth. They had a few years of juvenile romance franchising (To All The Boys), vital faves (my private alternative, Set It Up), and star autos (Always Be My Maybe) that actually labored on the platform. In the years that adopted, they’ve tried to seize that success as soon as once more, however sadly, nothing has caught regardless of the headline-grabbing expertise that performs inside them (Yes, I’m speaking about Your Place or Mine).
However, the newest entry within the style, A Tourist’s Guide To Love, doesn’t absolutely belong in that class. Not actually. This explicit film feels nearer to the innocent, benign opponents from the Hallmark films of the world than it does to a few of Netflix’s larger price range efforts.
In a way, the film melds the items of the profession of its star Rachael Leigh Cook, who rose to prominence in a distinct period of pre-Netflix teen romance within the late 90s/early 2000s starring in such cult classics as She’s All That and Josie and the Pussycats whereas additionally doing a brief stint on Dawson’s Creek. However, for the higher a part of the final decade, she has moved in direction of the TV film route doing such tasks as her “In the Vineyard” collection for Hallmark and some vacation movies as nicely.
A Tourist’s Guide To Love marks Cook’s third Netflix Original after 2020’s Love Guaranteed reverse Damon Wayans Jr and a smaller mom function within the gender-swap remake of She’s All That entitled He’s All That.
While these movies lean heavier into the comedic facet of the romantic comedy, Tourist appears to go in a a lot completely different path.
Penned by TV Movie scribe Eirene Donohue (A Sugar & Spice Holiday, Drink Slay Love) and directed by Steven Ok. Tsuchida (Netflix’s Resort To Love & Cobra Kai), the film may be categorized as “ASMR for Millennial Moms”; a cushty companion that pairs nicely with a heat tub, a glass of white wine, and occasional 2nd screening on Instagram.
A Tourist’s Guide To Love is aware of precisely what it’s and the viewers it serves. It fills the within of the Venn Diagram between trip porn, romance, & nostalgia if the holiday porn circle was attempting desperately to push the opposite items out completely.
Picture: Netflix
Set virtually completely in Vietnam, the story facilities round meticulous & dependable journey govt Amanda Riley, whose regular life is upended when her long-term boyfriend decides to take a job midway throughout the nation. Jilted from the sudden breakup, Amanda accepts an task to go undercover and study in regards to the vacationer trade in Vietnam; extra particularly, a guided tour enterprise which may be a possible buy for Amanda’s firm. Along the way in which, she finds journey and romance along with her Vietnamese expat tour information Sinh (Scott Ly) once they resolve to reroute the tour bus to be able to discover life and love off the crushed path.
Depending on what you got here for with this endeavor, you may be disillusioned by the journey and romance within the above description. If your definition of journey is swapping out lovely & fascinating vacationer traps for EVEN MORE lovely and fascinating sights with fewer vacationers, then you definately’re in luck as a result of that’s so far as this movie will stretch.
Remember the phrases “harmless” and “benign” I used earlier than to explain this kind of movie’s competitors? This one makes use of the identical mildew to provide the feeling of wandering the Vietnamese countryside with the identical wistful surprise as a member of the tour group. As for the romance, the identical adjectives apply because the “complicated” love connection within the movie meets only a few obstacles and yields solely a low degree of chemistry between Cook and Ly. While pleasant individually, the 2 leads don’t register the heights essential to compete with the fantastic thing about its backdrop, nor do you assume it received’t occur for them ultimately.
Picture: Netflix
Overall, A Tourist’s Guide To Love is a limp TV movie-style entry that doesn’t elevate previous its cliches and modest allure. The sights and sounds of modern-day Vietnam seize extra of your consideration than the on-screen duo that must be capturing our hearts.
This can be a “put it on in the background” traditional for a sure crowd, however will probably be a largely forgettable Friday night time for a extra discernible bunch.
Watch A Tourist’s Guide to Love on Netflix if you happen to like:
- Love, Guaranteed
- She’s All That
- Resort To Love
- Falling Inn Love
MVP of A Tourist’s Guide to Love
Scott Ly as Sinh Thach
While he doesn’t pair that nicely together with his main woman, Scott Ly shows a degree of charisma & small-screen attractiveness that may give him many extra alternatives in movies & comparable TV roles like this for years to return.
For a film that appears extra like a guided tour than a romantic story, he’s a delight to observe and may very well be a mainstay in Vietnamese & American Netflix tasks sooner or later.
PLAY, PAUSE, OR STOP?
PAUSE.
If you’re a TV film junkie who loves the combo of Rachael Leigh Cook and journey documentaries, this one’s for you. But if in case you have a extra refined palette for top-shelf rom-coms, you may assume twice earlier than you bounce into this film.