Danish actress Trine Dyrholm is irresistible in this “Inner Italian” flick.
Ever on the lookout for “Inner Italian” movies (see my Top Ten), I stumbled upon Love Is All You Need (Sony Pictures Classics) on Netflix. It’s a relatively recent film that must not have made it to my little corner of the world during its theatrical release.
Susanne Bier, the Danish Academy-award winning director for best-foreign language film (2011) In a Better World, made this film with stars Pierce Brosnan and Trine Dyrholm. She shot it on location near Sorrento.
Love Is All You Need is certainly not a masterpiece (how many are?) but Walter and I found its quirkiness, and the charismatic Dyrholm, appealing. Not a typical rom-com, several dark elements colored the narrative.
We responded to the palpable sense of locale and it seemed as if some of the minor characters were locals.
My only serious irritation was from the music. Opening with Dean Martin’s That’s Amore (a song spot-on for Moonstruck, a movie celebrating an Italian American family in Brooklyn) is tone deaf in this context.
A view of Amalfi from a limonceto.
While I’m not in the business of revealing plot points, I will declare my crush on Danish actress Dyrholm.
Forget Brosnan, I fell in love with her.
When she says, “I can’t imagine existing in a world without lemons,” I found a soulmate.
Brosnan’s lemon grove is a pivotal locale that reminded me of my enchanting stay in a cottage set in a citrus grove above Amalfi.
Love, and lemons, are all I need.