Let’s just state this right up front: I was absolutely helpless in the wake of “You, Me & Tuscany,” and if you have a weakness for romantic comedies, you likely will be, too.

Let’s just enumerate what we’re up against here in director Kat Coiro’s film: two gorgeous and adorable main characters, Anna (Halle Bailey, "The Little Mermaid") and Michael (Regé-Jean Page, “Bridgerton”); some equally enchanting supporting players, including the world’s most endearing Italian cabbie (Marco Calvani); a ridiculously sun-drenched villa; a smattering of opera-singing locals; and a meet-cute that happens, as all meet-cutes should, over a dreamy Italian sandwich. And there’s even a bonus on top: The screenplay, by Ryan Engle (based on an idea by Engle and his wife, Kristin Engle, who I really hope met in Tuscany over a sandwich), is genuinely funny. Thank you, universe; a lot of us need this movie right now.

Things start out with a delightful fake-out: We’re first led to believe that Anna is a rich woman living a perfect “Sex and the City”-ish life in Manhattan — but we quickly learn that she’s an unemployed chef turned housesitter, confronted by an early-returning homeowner furious that Anna is wearing her clothes and living her life. (Nia Vardalos, in the movie for about 30 seconds, nonetheless steals it with the line, “First my husband ruined the Hamptons with his Speedo!”) Tossed out and homeless, Anna meets a handsome Italian man named Matteo (Lorenzo de Moor) who in the course of their extremely chaste night together reveals that he has an empty villa just sitting around in Tuscany, as one does. Anna, who has a prepaid ticket to Italy and $500 in her bank account, hops on over to Italy and takes up residence in said villa — only to soon find herself pretending to be Matteo’s fiancée to his stunned family, and developing feelings for the absent Matteo’s absurdly handsome cousin Michael, whose sudden and picturesque shirtlessness and sexy dirt-fondling in the vineyard proves irresistible.

So yes, this is a standard rom-com, in all the best of ways — both playing with the genre’s well-trodden tropes, and letting us enjoy how much fun they can be. Bailey’s Anna, like all great rom-com heroines, doesn’t listen to her head (or to her wary best friend back home, hilariously played by Aziza Scott) but makes bad decisions with her heart, none of which make any sense but all of which end up working out just fine: Anna learns, adorably, to stop borrowing other people’s lives and to enjoy living her own. Even aside from Page’s wonderfully throaty-voiced Michael (this man smolders like a Roman candle), everyone Anna meets in Italy is delightful, particularly that cabbie, who after hearing her tale of deception and woe says, after a dramatic pause, “This is very romantic.” And oh, that scenery. I could have used a little more food porn — this is Italy! Show us more pasta! — but “You, Me & Tuscany” is a springtime charmer.

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‘YOU, ME & TUSCANY’

3.5 stars (out of 4)

MPA rating: PG-13 (for some strong language, and sexual material)

Running time: 1:44

How to watch: Now in theaters

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