Love in the Villa

Julie is a schoolteacher with a romantic streak, the kind who brings Romeo and Juliet to life for her students even as her own relationship falls apart. After her boyfriend breaks up with her, she makes an uncharacteristically impulsive decision and flies to Verona, the city of the famous balcony. Her trip immediately goes wrong when she arrives at her rented villa and finds it already occupied by Charlie, a British man who is her opposite in temperament. Because the property was booked twice, the two strangers are forced to share it, setting up a territorial conflict that neither planned for.

Mark Steven Johnson directed and wrote the screenplay, and produced alongside Margret H. Huddleston and Stephanie Slack. The film follows his romantic comedy Love, Guaranteed and sits between it and Champagne Problems in his filmography, which also includes When in Rome, Simon Birch and the Marvel adaptations Daredevil and Ghost Rider. Kat Graham plays Julie and Tom Hopper plays Charlie, with Raymond Ablack, Laura Hopper and Emilio Solfrizzi among the supporting cast. Released in 2022, the film runs 114 minutes. It drew a 4.7 out of 10 from 22 critics, while audiences were more forgiving, giving it 5.5 on IMDb from around 15,000 votes and 6 on TMDB from roughly 400.