Solo Mio

Kevin James gets to display his full repertoire of hangdog looks in Solo Mio, in which he plays a sad sack who gets dumped at the altar in Rome. Lucky for him, the Eternal City offers no shortage of compassionate American tourists and sexy, age-appropriate Italians to help him get over his heartbreak.

Critics fond of low-hanging fruit will accuse Solo Mio of being a Hallmark movie writ large, but there are any number of Hallmark movies with a deeper understanding of heartbreak and human behavior; the real comparison here is to the sitcom, the arena where Mr. James first found international stardom. This is a movie — directed by brothers Charles and Daniel Kinnane, co-written by James and two additional Kinnane brothers, Patrick and John — that refuses to burrow beneath the surface. Obvious jokes, facile insights, and emotional Band-Aids are all that’s on the menu.

Solo Mio banks on James’ general likability to carry the day, since his nuptial abandonment happens so early in the film that viewers have learned hardly anything about James’s character Matt, a schoolteacher, or his eventually reluctant fiancée Heather (Julie Ann Emery). We’re also not told much about who’s filling the church for that Rome wedding; after the bride is a no-show, we see no friends or family of Matt stepping up to offer advice or condolences, or even to gripe about having shelled out for a destination wedding that never actually took place.

Unable to get a refund on the honeymoon package, heartbroken Matt does the group tour alone, surrounded by couples. Eventually fellow Americans Julian (Kim Coates) and Meghan (a criminally underutilized Alyson Hannigan) — making a third go at marriage after divorcing each other twice — and therapists Neil (Jonathan Roumie, The Chosen) and Donna (Julee Cerda) take pity on Matt and work to lift his spirits. (Their running bit is that Donna emasculates her new husband with therapy-speak at every opportunity, until the movie just decides to drop the unfunny gag altogether.)

It’s not until Matt keeps bumping into Gia (Nicole Grimaudo), a café owner with a history of heartbreak all her own, that he not only comes back to life but rebounds with such speed that, again, it would have been nice to have more information about how solid things were with Heather before she walked out on him in a cathedral-length train.

From Summertime to Shirley Valentine to Book Club 2, there’s a rich cinematic history of emotionally constipated white people learning to live, laugh, and love by visiting the Mediterranean, and Solo Mio offers a literal guided tour to the expected locales, from the Trevi fountain to the vineyards of Tuscany. Cinematographer Jared Fadel operates exclusively in picture-postcard mode, tackling the assignment with a similar lack of depth and originality as the writing.

Speaking of the script, a capable cast struggles with paper-thin characterizations and by-the-numbers plotting, with only Coates and Grimaudo finding moments of eccentricity or recognizable humanity. They succeed where a last-minute reveal and some celebrity cameos (the specifics of which publicists are locking down like the finale of a Knives Out movie) fail to deliver.

In another era, Solo Mio might have made a breezy, enjoyable, and otherwise forgettable CBS Wednesday Night at the Movies. But trying to make material this flimsy work on the big screen is, frankly, pazzo.

Directors: Charles Kinnane, David Kinnane
Screenwriters: Kevin James, John Kinnane, Patrick Kinnane
Cast: Kevin James, Kim Coates, Alyson Hannigan, Julee Cerda, Julie Ann Emery, Jonathan Roumie, Nicole Grimaudo
Producers: Mark Fasano, Jeffrey Greenstein, Kevin James
Executive producers: Jeffrey Azize, Lee Broda, Gianluca Curti, Jeffrey Michael Deary, Brando Eaton, Matthew Alex Goldberg, Danny Greenstein, Thayer Juergens, Brian Katz, Brendan Kinnane, William Kinnane, Frankie Nasso, Ari Novak, Jeff Rice, Andy Steinman, Richie Walls
Director of photography: Jared Fadel
Production design: Chiara Balducci
Editing: Peter Kinnane
Music: Joy Ngiaw
Sound design: Francesco Cavalieri, sound mixer
Production companies: Angel Films, A Higher Standard, Nickel City Pictures
In English
100 minutes