''Little Italy'' is a 2018

romantic comedy Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a sub-genre of comedy and Romance novel, romance fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount all obstacles. Ro ...

film directed by

Donald Petrie Donald Mark Petrie (born April 2, 1954) is an American film director and actor. Life and career Petrie was born in New York City, New York (state), New York, the son of Dorothea G. Petrie, Dorothea (née Grundy), a television producer, actor, a ...

, with a screenplay by

Steve Galluccio Steve Galluccio (born October 9, 1960) is a Canadian screenwriter and playwright, most noted for his play ''Mambo Italiano'' and its feature film adaptation '' Mambo Italiano''. Background Born and raised in Montreal, Quebec to immigrant parents ...

and Vinay Virmani from a story by Virmani. The film stars

Emma Roberts Emma Rose Roberts (born February 10, 1991) Additional on October 9, 2016 is an American actress, singer and producer. Known for her performances spanning multiple genres of film and television, her work in the horror film, horror and thriller ...

Hayden Christensen Hayden Christensen (born April 19, 1981) is a Canadian actor. He gained recognition for his portrayal of Anakin Skywalker / Darth Vader in the ''Star Wars'' media franchise. He first appeared in the prequel trilogy films, '' Star Wars: Episod ...

Alyssa Milano Alyssa Jayne Milano ( ; born December 19, 1972) is an American actress and activist. She has played Samantha Micelli in '' Who's the Boss?'' (1984–1992), Jennifer Mancini in '' Melrose Place'' (1997–1998), Phoebe Halliwell in '' Charmed'' ...

, Adam Ferrara, Gary Basaraba,

Linda Kash Linda Kash (born 17 January 1961) is a Canadian actress. Career Kash was born 17 January 1961, in Montreal. She was a cast member of Second City and played Trudy Weissman in the 1998 Jean Smart sitcom '' Style & Substance''; she has also playe ...

, Andrew Phung,

Cristina Rosato Cristina Rosato (born January 6, 1983) is a Canadian actress. She has appeared in TV series such as ''Rookie Blue'', '' Trauma'' and ''Turner and Hooch''. Early life Rosato studied acting at The American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Los Angel ...

Danny Aiello Daniel Louis Aiello Jr. () (June 20, 1933 – December 12, 2019) was an American actor. He appeared in numerous motion pictures, including ''The Godfather Part II'' (1974), ''The Front'' (1976), ''Once Upon a Time in America'' (1984), ''Hide in ...

Andrea Martin Andrea Louise Martin (born January 15, 1947) is an American and Canadian actress, best known for her work in the television series '' SCTV'' and '' Great News''. She has appeared in films such as '' Black Christmas'' (1974), '' Wag the Dog'' (1 ...

and

Jane Seymour Jane Seymour (; 24 October 1537) was Queen of England as the third wife of King Henry VIII from their marriage on 30 May 1536 until her death the next year. She became queen following the execution of Henry's second wife, Anne Boleyn, who was ...

. The film features one of Aiello's final film appearances before his death in 2019.

Plot

Nikki and Leo grow up together in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

Little Italy Little Italy is the catch-all name for an ethnic enclave populated primarily by Italians or people of Italian ancestry, usually in an Urban area, urban neighborhood. The concept of "Little Italy" holds many different aspects of the Italian cul ...

neighborhood, where their families run a

pizzeria A pizzeria is a restaurant focusing on pizza. A pizzeria may offer take-away, where the customer orders their food either in advance or at the restaurant and then takes the prepared food with them in a pizza box. A pizzeria may deliver food to ...

. After winning a pizza competition, a feud developed between Nikki's father Sal and Leo's father Vince which caused them to dissolve their partnership and start separate restaurants side by side. The reason for the feud is a secret. Nikki eventually trains to become a

chef A chef is a professional Cook (profession), cook and tradesperson who is proficient in all aspects of outline of food preparation, food preparation, often focusing on a particular cuisine. The word "chef" is derived from the term (), the di ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, while Leo remains in Toronto to work at his father's restaurant. Several years later, Nikki is given the chance to compete for a position to run her instructor Corinne's new restaurant. Corinne gives Nikki two weeks off to prepare her menu and get a work visa from Canada. Leo still works at his father's restaurant but now lives with his friend Luigi above Luigi's bar, where Leo also bartends. The feud between Vince and Sal has escalated over the years. Upon arriving in Toronto, Nikki meets Leo at the bar and they drunkenly play soccer during a thunderstorm. She passes out and spends the night at Leo's, while he sleeps on the couch. The next day, Nikki is welcomed by her family. Vince and Jogi are arrested after Sal and his Indian employee Jessie replace the oregano at Vince's restaurant with

marijuana Cannabis (), commonly known as marijuana (), weed, pot, and ganja, List of slang names for cannabis, among other names, is a non-chemically uniform psychoactive drug from the ''Cannabis'' plant. Native to Central or South Asia, cannabis has ...

, but are soon released. Jessie and Jogi share a mutual unspoken attraction, despite working for the rival restaurants. Additionally, Leo's grandfather Carlo and Nikki's grandmother Franca have been secretly dating, only outwardly participating in the feud. Nikki's mother and friends try to set her up with men from the neighborhood, but she is uninterested. Growing closer to Leo as they cook together at his apartment, Nikki is impressed with his creativity and cooking skills. Carlo proposes to Franca, professing his love, but she walks away without responding. Nikki encourages Leo to serve his pizza out of Vince's restaurant, but he tells her his father is stubborn and opposed to changing the menu. He hopes to open his own restaurant after his father retires, so he will not have to compete. Franca finally agrees to marry Carlo despite her promise not to remarry after her husband died. Nikki and Leo ride around Little Italy, reliving their childhood. Returning to Leo's apartment, they sleep together. Corinne calls to remind Nikki that she needs the menu in a few days, otherwise she will promote another chef. Struggling, Nikki expresses her regrets to Leo. Franca and Carlo arrange a dinner with the families to announce their relationship, without revealing their engagement. Upset, Sal and Vince begin exchanging insults. Vince proposes entering a pizza competition against Sal so whoever loses leaves Little Italy. Reminded they are banned from participating, they suggest Nikki and Leo enter for them. Nikki initially refuses, and Vince asserts it is because she's afraid to face Leo. Nikki and Leo start arguing about who let who win in soccer when they were kids. He makes a reference to them sleeping together the night before, so she slaps him and angrily storms out. At the competition, Leo is declared the winner and Nikki departs to the airport for London. However, he refuses to take the trophy after realizing that Nikki had purposely switched their sauces so he would win. Discovering that Nikki has gone to the airport, Leo and their families follow. There, Leo finds Nikki and declares that all he wants is her and that he is in love with her. Although initially seeming to reject him, she ultimately chooses Leo. Confessing she loves him too, they kiss. Confronting their fathers' about their age old fight, they reveal it was indirectly about their parents Franca and Carlo. In 1999, after winning the pizza competition, they argued about who to name the winning pizza after, resulting in the beginning of the rivalry. Franca and Carlo finally announce their engagement. Their sons hug, formally ending the feud. Some time later, the families celebrate at Nikki and Leo's new restaurant. Corinne, who came to Toronto to convince Nikki to return to London, reveals she had to close her new restaurant after receiving negative critic reviews. The families all dance together, and Nikki and Leo finally help Jessie and Jogi get together.

Cast

as Nicoletta "Nikki" Angioli ** Ava Preston as young Nikki *

as Leonard "Leo" Campoli ** Nicky Cappella as young Leo *

as Dora Angioli * Adam Ferrara as Salvatore "Sal" Angioli * Gary Basaraba as Vincenzo "Vince" Campoli *

as Amelia Campoli * Andrew Phung as Luigi *

as Gina *

as Carlo *

as Franca *

as Corinne *

Amrit Kaur Rajkumari Dame Bibiji Amrit Kaur (''née'' Ahluwalia) DStJ (2 February 1887 – 6 February 1964) was an Indian activist and politician. Following her long-lasting association with the Indian independence movement, she was appointed the firs ...

as Jessie *

Martin Roach Martin Jamie Roach (born July 15, 1962) is a Canadian actor. He is best known for his live-action roles as T. Abner Hall in the Disney XD television series '' Aaron Stone'' (2009–2010), Mike in the science-fiction television series '' Falling ...

as Officer Hardaz * Vas Saranga as Jogi *

Rodrigo Fernandez-Stoll Rodrigo Fernandez-Stoll (born 1983) is a Canadian actor and comedian. He was a dual Canadian Screen Award nominee at the 8th Canadian Screen Awards in 2020, receiving nods for Best Lead Performance in a Web Program or Series for ''Save Me (web seri ...

as Ramon

Production

In July 2017, it was announced

, Adam Ferrara, Gary Basaraba, Andrew Phung, and

had joined the cast of the film, with

directing from a screenplay by

and Vinay Virmani. Pauline Dhillon and Ajay Virmani served as producers on the film, while Fred Fuchs, Tiffany Kuzon, Patrick Roy and Christina Kubacki served as executive producers, under their Firsttake Entertainment,

Telefilm Canada Telefilm Canada is a Canadian Crown corporation that supports Canada's audiovisual industry. Headquartered in Montreal, Telefilm Canada provides services to the Canadian audiovisual industry with four regional offices in Vancouver, British Colu ...

and Gem Entertainment banners, respectively.

Entertainment One Lionsgate Canada is a Canadian entertainment company and a subsidiary of Lionsgate Studios. Based in Toronto, the company is primarily involved in the acquisition and production of films and television series. The company began on June 1, 1973 ...

handled distribution in Canada. Principal photography was completed on June 22, 2017.

Release

The film was released in Canada on August 24, 2018, by

and in the United States on September 21, 2018, by

Lionsgate Lions Gate, Lion Gate or similar terms may refer to: Gates *Lion Gate at Mycenae in Greece *Lion Gate, one of the entrances to the ancient Hittite city of Hattusa, now in Turkey *Lion Gate, one of the entrances to the gardens of Hampton Court Pala ...

Reception

The

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

reported that of critics have given the film a positive review, based on reviews, with an average rating of . On

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, the film has a weighted average score of 28 out of 100, based on 4 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews. Writing in the ''

Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily nonprofit newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has long held the second largest circulation among Chicago newspaper ...

'', film critic

Richard Roeper Richard E. Roeper (born October 17, 1959) is an American writer. He is a former columnist and film critic for the '' Chicago Sun-Times'', where he wrote for 39 years dating back to 1986 until his departure in 2025. He co-hosted the television s ...

described the film as "extra-cheesy and terrible, but there IS a certain comfort-viewing pleasure to be had from watching the wonderful cast gamely attempting to sell exchanges." Katie Walsh of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' described the film as "more about cartoonish cultural stereotypes than finding love," "limp and formulaic", and featuring "wildly outdated cultural stereotypes about Italian New Yorkers, Indian folks, gay people and others." Barry Hertz of ''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Newspapers in Canada, Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in Western Canada, western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of more than 6 million in 2024, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on week ...

'' wrote that "Emma Roberts and Hayden Christensen...deserve so much better than the wan caricatures they are stuck with" and that the film "is either a remarkable act of misguided self-parody – a work so subversive that any trace of artistic irony ends up being invisible to the naked eye – or a solid case that its filmmaker fundamentally misunderstands the modern world." The movie was considered one of the worst movies of the year. It was the pick for episode 206 of the podcast '' How Did This Get Made?'', which discusses unusually terrible films. When trailers were released confirming it was an actual movie, the film was widely mocked on social media and failed to get a wide theatrical release, screening in just a handful of theatres and being made available on demand while still in theatres.

References

External links

* {{Donald Petrie 2018 romantic comedy films 2018 films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films 2010s Canadian films American romantic comedy films Canadian romantic comedy films English-language Canadian films English-language romantic comedy films Films about chefs Films about dysfunctional families Films about widowhood Films directed by Donald Petrie Films set in 1999 Films set in 2018 Films set in London Films set in restaurants Films set in Toronto Films shot in Toronto Lionsgate films Voltage Pictures films Works about Italian-Canadian culture