Solo Mio: Movie Review

Cast: Kevin James, Nicole Grimaudo, Alyson Hannigan, Kim Coates, Jonathan Roumie, Julee Cerda, Julie Ann Emery, Alessandro Carbonara

Director: Chuck Kinnane, Dan Kinnane

If you’re expecting a goofy Kevin James to bust out the larrikin behaviour in Solo Mio, you’ll be sorely disappointed.

In it, he plays sad-sack elementary school teacher Matt Taylor, who believes he’s found the one in Heather. After a pitch-perfect proposal in among the kids, he and his fiancée head to Italy for their wedding. But to Matt’s horror, he’s left at the altar, smiling and hopeful as his other half makes a run for it.

Deciding to carry on with the honeymoon in the mistaken belief that she’ll return to him, Matt becomes part of a travel group of other couples, all of which appear to be having their own issues. From a bickering duo who’s on their third go-around after divorcing each other twice to another who are both picking at each other, Matt finds he’s not sure he fits in.

But after a meet-cute with Gia at a local café, the pair strikes up an easy friendship that follows the usual pattern of opposites attract. Will Matt mend his broken heart and take up a new life?

Solo Mio isn’t interested in presenting a film that deals with the emotional depth and fallout of break-ups, unexpected or otherwise. It’s a strait-laced, faith-based film that’s aiming for the feelgood factor and is more likely to land with people untroubled by complications in life or in cinema.

That said, with some beautiful scenery around Italy and a depth from Kevin James that’s truly delightful and different, the film manages to balance some of the more uneven edges of what plays out – including the male duo that befriend and ill-advise him on his life journey.

Disappointingly, Alyson Hannigan is massively underused in a film that’s more around the hijinks of Matt and his buffoonish honeymooner buddies. Thankfully, the directors never resort to sending James to the kind of depths he’s explored before in the likes of Paul Blart: Mall Cop.

Solo Mio is a thoroughly pleasant film, the kind that grandparents would be happy to sit through – however, its lack of bite and emotional depth at times proves to be a major missed opportunity to provide a film with definite conflict and a hint more of investment.