The Love Scam 2025 Movie Review
The misunderstanding or the lie is a grateful element in many a romantic comedy. Sooner or later the lie – whether it is for the best or not – will be exposed, which provides a turning point that ultimately results in a happy ending. Even the biggest liars have gotten away with it in the film world. For the brother Vito and Antone in the Italian rom-com Mica è Colpa Mia it is even outright fraud.
For those who still have doubts about whether this is a romantic comedy: the English title for Umberto Carteni’s seventh feature film is The Love Scam . So then you know. In this film, we meet single father Vito, who has baptized his son Napoleon without any pretense. He has to make ends meet and keeps a black job as a cleaner in a restaurant.
Brother Antone is no better: he cheats buyers by selling fake smartphones. The couple lives in a dilapidated apartment in Naples that is dripping with leaks and crawling with vermin. All the neighbors have left. When it turns out that Antone has an indirect debt of half a ton to a project developer and the couple are threatened with eviction, there is little else to do but to completely wrap up the boss of the company. With lies.
Mica è Colpa Mia immediately starts off with chaos and not only because of the rattling Italian language. At first, Vito seems to be the most responsible of the group, but under the influence of his brother he is prepared to take the top woman Marina for a ride. The ease with which this happens evokes both disbelief and a sense of incredulity. The screenwriters not only make little effort to create realistic events, they also fail miserably when it comes to the development of the characters.
We don’t really get any insight into the backgrounds and motivations of the two brothers. Well, they are touched upon briefly – the building where they live was founded by their father and they have debts – but how the two ended up in this situation and how their mutual dynamics work seems to interest the writer. The viewer is immediately plunged into the hectic pace; a storm that will not subside.
Marina’s garden-variety deception, which starts with stealing her mobile phone at a charity gala, goes extremely smoothly. The woman never becomes suspicious when Vito – under a false name – keeps showing up in front of her. She blames it on an annoying stalker, but then effortlessly goes along with all his lies. Especially when a gigantic dinner has to be put together and Marina puts on a cooking apron, all credit is lost.
Because you as a viewer are dropped in the middle of the hustle and bustle, this Italian romantic comedy doesn’t get off to a good start. Obligatory scenes in which Vito and Marina get closer by doing fun things together feel hackneyed. As an outward appearance, the ever-stressed Marina only seems to let her hair down when she is completely relaxed. Three guesses as to who makes her do that, but that goes unnoticed.
