Transcript
Speaker: I'm Haley.
Speaker: And I'm Riley.
Speaker: And this is Movies Better, Yeah Right.
Speaker: A podcast where we see how our favorite YA reads and their adaptations stack up against each other.
Speaker: I'm a full-time writer, reader, and proud owner of four library cards.
Speaker: And I'm a never writer, sometimes reader, and avid movie watcher.
Speaker: We've been friends for six years and bond best over books and movies based off them.
Speaker: But instead of watching together and annoying everyone around us with our nonstop commentary, we've brought our hot takes here for you.
Speaker: So whether you read along, watch along, both or neither, join us as we work our way through the YA genre.
Speaker: Hi everyone, we are doing Love and Gelato this week, and I'm realizing I don't know the author's name.
Speaker: Jenna Evans Welch.
Speaker: Yes, so we read her book and then we watched the movie this week.
Speaker: I want to get into our hot takes.
Speaker: I'm wondering what yours is, Riley.
Speaker: That's so funny because I was like, I hope we can just jump right into the hot takes because mine really speaks to what I think about the book and the movie.
Speaker: Okay, perfect.
Speaker: I have to preface by saying Haley's biggest pet peeve reading, which I think we just talked about a couple weeks ago, is a misunderstanding between two characters that they could easily, like the book would be resolved if they would just talk.
Speaker: My pet peeve, my big huge pet peeve, which I didn't know anything about this book until we had already picked it, is I cannot stand or I can't suspend my disbelief enough to read a book where the key to like solving a mystery in the book is a journal that the person won't sit down and read in one sitting.
Speaker: Like I can't believe that someone would have a
Speaker: the answers to a problem and just be like, I'm gonna take this a little at a time, unless they're like in some death defying situation and like don't have time to read it.
Speaker: I can't get past it.
Speaker: And so as soon as she got a journal, the main character got a journal that was her late mother's, I was like, oh, oh, this is like my kryptonite.
Speaker: I can't believe it never even crossed my mind
Speaker: That it was crazy that she wasn't just sitting and reading it.
Speaker: I was like, yeah, that makes sense.
Speaker: As a little mini writer, as a girl, I like tried to write a book about a girl finding a journal in like her attic because I keep a journal and I thought that would be so cool.
Speaker: And I couldn't write more than a few pages because I was like, well, she's just going to read the whole thing.
Speaker: Like what is stopping her?
Speaker: I couldn't figure out what would stop her from just sitting down and finishing.
Speaker: Yeah, she could have just read it in one day.
Speaker: And then she would have known everything.
Speaker: Probably like an hour.
Speaker: Like she was really speeding through it.
Speaker: This journal was not that long.
Speaker: Because it was written out in full.
Speaker: So you get all of her mom's journals.
Speaker: And it's really driving the plot.
Speaker: And it was interesting, but there's that one part of my brain that could not let it go because that's just like my thing always.
Speaker: It has been for years.
Speaker: I mean, that totally, now that you've said that, you've exposed something that I now can't unsee.
Speaker: She does say, because her mom has recently passed away, she does mention, like, she's taking it a little bit at a time because it's emotionally really heavy to be reading her mom's work.
Speaker: I guess that's true.
Speaker: is somewhat of an explanation but once the mystery as we'll talk about starts getting like more intense i was like the answer is in your hand like if you could just open it or like hand it to somebody else give it to like this guy who's helping you
Speaker: That is actually so true.
Speaker: Yeah, because she's not just reading it to like be with her mom again.
Speaker: Like she actually needs important information.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So that's my hot take.
Speaker: I couldn't suspend the disbelief.
Speaker: As cute as it was, I love love stories.
Speaker: I love gelato.
Speaker: I love an abroad.
Speaker: Like it was great.
Speaker: But that one part, I couldn't get over it.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: Well, my hot take really follows your theme of pet peeves.
Speaker: Because you know, I just like, cannot stand when they make movies different.
Speaker: So my hot take is who the hell is movie Ren?
Speaker: This is not anybody I've met.
Speaker: I like they kept the name.
Speaker: There is so much.
Speaker: This will be the first time in a few weeks that we've had a book and a movie be so vastly different besides.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Like not to get like too ahead of ourselves, but like next week, why don't I read a book and you just watch a movie and it will basically be the same thing.
Speaker: Like these are not, they share a name.
Speaker: I felt the same way.
Speaker: We'll get to it, but as soon as it started, I felt unmoored.
Speaker: The footing was not... I was like, wait a second.
Speaker: This is not what I was expecting.
Speaker: Yeah, well, I watched the movie first, when it first came out.
Speaker: So I started reading this book and was like, am I confused?
Speaker: Are these not the same?
Speaker: And now I've set us up for a week of failure because I thought this was the same.
Speaker: It was a mess, but I hadn't read it.
Speaker: I thought I had.
Speaker: I think I've read something with a similar cover because I was convinced I'd already read this.
Speaker: And then within a few pages was like, I definitely don't know this story.
Speaker: So her like it's like a series kind of like in a similar family.
Speaker: So there's like two other books that have covers that look almost identical.
Speaker: It's Love and Luck and Love and Olives.
Speaker: And I haven't read those.
Speaker: So I still don't know what the similar cover book I read was.
Speaker: If I ever see it, I'll take a picture of it.
Speaker: I just need it.
Speaker: I haven't had the brain blast.
Speaker: I've been waiting for it.
Speaker: As we get into the summary, I want you to keep in mind, and maybe you'll be like, no, you're dead wrong, but this gave me very heavy 13 Little Blue Envelopes vibes.
Speaker: Did you ever read that book as a teen?
Speaker: I don't think so.
Speaker: Well, that ends that conversation.
Speaker: Maybe a listener has.
Speaker: Maybe a listener has.
Speaker: Well, if you've been listening and you read that book, you know it's like a girl traveling Europe and she has like 13 little envelopes that she is reading as she travels.
Speaker: But I can't remember anything past that.
Speaker: And I didn't do any research and I thought you might know.
Speaker: Were you hoping that my memory would be like, yes, I remember what happened.
Speaker: I don't know why I expected that of you.
Speaker: For the first time ever in life.
Speaker: I feel like in that book somebody passes away and sends her on a European journey as well.
Speaker: But I could be dead wrong.
Speaker: Somebody let me know.
Speaker: We'll never know.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Someone tell us.
Speaker: There's no way to know.
Speaker: As my favorite podcaster Tig Notaro says, she always goes, there's just no way for us to find that out.
Speaker: So I have a short summary plot just so that we can get into like the vibe of what this book is even about.
Speaker: So it follows Lena, who is our main character.
Speaker: She's a high schooler.
Speaker: And she's sent to live with her newly discovered father in Florence on a cemetery.
Speaker: And that is because of her mother's dying wish.
Speaker: Her mom wants her to like go live with this man in a different country after she's dead, which is crazy.
Speaker: She's never mentioned before.
Speaker: Has not existed.
Speaker: And so while at first Lena is like not into it, she's a little apprehensive and kind of scornful and still mourning her mom.
Speaker: She goes on the trip.
Speaker: And she wishes to be back in America.
Speaker: But then she's gifted this old journal that was her mom's that Riley mentioned.
Speaker: And with the help of Ren, who I mentioned, he's a local Italian-American boy that becomes like her best friend in Italy.
Speaker: They recreate Lena's mother's experiences in Italy.
Speaker: And as Lena spends more time there, she learns that she actually really likes it.
Speaker: And she likes her father, air quotes, Italy, Ren.
Speaker: and everything that has to do with her mom's journey.
Speaker: So that's kind of the short of it.
Speaker: It was cute.
Speaker: It's very cute.
Speaker: Emotional.
Speaker: Oh yeah.
Speaker: The second chapter already had me tearing up.
Speaker: I read the like second half in one sitting while in a really crappy motel.
Speaker: So anytime I think about this book, the setting is like Italy and gorgeous and beautiful.
Speaker: And then it's me in a red roof inn like reading.
Speaker: about gelato and beautiful sights and I'm just in this shitty motel room.
Speaker: Oh no, I was on the subway so it's not much better.
Speaker: It was a much better mental book than actual reading location.
Speaker: So long story short of it, the whole like start of this book is basically the mom being like, when I die, also move to a foreign country with a stranger.
Speaker: So and Lena listens, she does that.
Speaker: So she moves to the cemetery.
Speaker: She's like trying to get settled in.
Speaker: While that's happening, she goes on a run and like a car full of Italian men chase her and like yell at her.
Speaker: Do they harass her?
Speaker: Which like for whatever reason is like not mentioned ever again.
Speaker: No, I think it was just to get, because then she runs a different route and that's how she runs into Ren I think the first time.
Speaker: I think there needed to be, I mean, I don't know why she needed to try the road at all, but there like needed to be a reason to get her off the road and like go into the cemetery.
Speaker: I guess that's true because she was like,
Speaker: She's pretty spooked by the cemetery.
Speaker: I mean, rightfully so, after having just buried her mother.
Speaker: You probably won't want to go hang out.
Speaker: I was going to ask you, though, what you I was really surprised or couldn't relate to the like extreme aversion to living.
Speaker: I like going to cemeteries when I'm traveling.
Speaker: I'm a cemetery weirdo.
Speaker: So I was like, what does she mean?
Speaker: It sounds so like the view out her window sounds beautiful.
Speaker: It sounds very quiet.
Speaker: I would love to live there.
Speaker: My only thought is like the constant reminder of death is probably not liking.
Speaker: But I guess you're right that that like car full of guys is what encourages her to like stay on the cemetery instead of trying to leave that happens.
Speaker: And then she's getting to know Howard a little bit, who is her like, quote unquote, father.
Speaker: Who she thinks he is her father.
Speaker: Her grandma told her that, right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So her mom's mom told her that as like kind of a fact.
Speaker: And Howard didn't deny it.
Speaker: So that's what we're going off of.
Speaker: So his co-worker, Sonia, drops off the journal for Lena because Lena's mom sent it.
Speaker: And Sonia just kind of assumed it was for Lena, not for Howard.
Speaker: So she like held on to it and then gave it over.
Speaker: Lena and Howard are kind of getting to know each other.
Speaker: Lena isn't really reading the journal yet.
Speaker: She decides it's like too hard and doesn't want to know anything and doesn't really want to get comfortable.
Speaker: Like in her brain, she's still leaving in like three days.
Speaker: She's going back to America to live with Addie.
Speaker: But then Howard reveals that he like didn't even know Lena existed.
Speaker: So it's not like he has been in America.
Speaker: a neglectful father or anything.
Speaker: He just thought Hadley like left the country.
Speaker: So this is also like all news to him.
Speaker: Which is wild.
Speaker: That he was like, yeah, you can send a teenager over to me.
Speaker: That sounds good.
Speaker: I'm surprised you weren't thrown by the miscommunication that could have been like the mom knowing that she was sick, telling the daughter the whole story and or possibly telling Howard, here's what she knows or here's the truth.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: No one knew any information.
Speaker: This whole concept...
Speaker: The mom must have been heavily drugged.
Speaker: So she's like going through treatment and I think she has cancer.
Speaker: It is like terminally ill.
Speaker: So my only thought is like the drugs are ruining her brain because why the fuck would you do this to your daughter?
Speaker: Yeah, it's really like- You have all the answers and you're gonna like make it some weird cryptic thing and then like send your, like take away everything your daughter knows and force her into like,
Speaker: completely uprooting her life to live with a strange man.
Speaker: It works.
Speaker: She's never lived with a man her whole life.
Speaker: Like, what is wrong with you, mom?
Speaker: It works out great, but there were, like, so many other avenues where it was ruined, and she never found out the truth.
Speaker: Yeah, how is it, like, not a conversation?
Speaker: But Lena, like, she finally can't sleep, so she's like, I guess I'll read the journal.
Speaker: And the first thing she sees when she opens it is in, like, big black marker.
Speaker: It says, I made the wrong choice.
Speaker: But there's like no indication of like if that's new writing or old writing or what it's about.
Speaker: So like Hadley really just felt like messing with everybody.
Speaker: She's pulling some strings.
Speaker: It's so wild.
Speaker: On her way out.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I'm picturing her watching.
Speaker: She's just like, let's see how this plays out.
Speaker: I put a lot of things in motion before I left the earth.
Speaker: And here we go.
Speaker: She's watching it like a movie.
Speaker: You know what, actually?
Speaker: It adds up that she would do this because obviously her whole life was bad communication skills.
Speaker: As we'll see.
Speaker: It totally makes sense that she thought this was the appropriate way to handle this because she doesn't know how to speak to people.
Speaker: We'll see that a few times.
Speaker: Ren, who is like, so Lena has met Ren now on a run.
Speaker: And he is like Italian-American.
Speaker: I think his mom is from Texas or something.
Speaker: So he like kind of relates to both sides and becomes friends with Lena.
Speaker: And he picks her up for a party.
Speaker: So they go and they meet other students.
Speaker: So if Lena were to stay longer, she would enroll in school.
Speaker: She has like one more year of high school left.
Speaker: So she would be part of like the American Institute of School in Florence.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I have the letters here, but I don't have what they mean.
Speaker: A-I-S-F.
Speaker: And while she's there, she meets Mimi, who is Ren's, like, crush, girlfriend person.
Speaker: I have a lot of thoughts.
Speaker: I just want to say to anyone who listened to the Angus Thongs and Full Frontal Snogging episode, I'm going to say justice for Mimi as hard as I said justice for Lindsay, because I need what?
Speaker: We can talk about it.
Speaker: My only thought was the vibe I kept getting was that they weren't in a relationship.
Speaker: There was like a weird implication toward the end that they had been or that he was like keeping that from her or like trying to... She was like upset about him hanging out with the... Oh my god, I'm forgetting the main character's name now.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I'm not telling you.
Speaker: That's very true.
Speaker: Because I could not figure out like what was going on.
Speaker: But Ren definitely was not like cutting things off with me.
Speaker: I didn't think they were fully like exclusive.
Speaker: But you're right.
Speaker: Ren still was like.
Speaker: hanging out with her and he's like weird or evasive anytime he's asked to like define what Mimi is to him or like why she's so possessive or what he's like promised her or like what their dynamic is like so the whole time I'm just like can he just answer a question about her so we we know yeah because I guess he he's liked her forever and she's like finally starting to like him back
Speaker: So I think if Lena hadn't entered the picture, he'd be like overjoyed that Mimi finally likes him.
Speaker: So I feel like he like wasn't willing to let that go yet.
Speaker: But in doing so, you're right.
Speaker: Justice for Mimi.
Speaker: Is that a cat of yours or a dog?
Speaker: Interesting.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: That noise?
Speaker: You don't know?
Speaker: Whenever I hear noises, I think it's you.
Speaker: Oh, that makes sense that it would be me.
Speaker: I'm home alone, so I certainly hope.
Speaker: I don't have pets either.
Speaker: I don't have neighbors.
Speaker: I think it's you.
Speaker: I think it's probably my neighbor's dog.
Speaker: Okay, good.
Speaker: I was like, are your cats okay?
Speaker: That's a loud noise.
Speaker: I mean, they also might not be okay.
Speaker: Yeah, that's definitely a dog.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: The amount I'm able to just like block out of my brain living in New York City.
Speaker: So she's at this party.
Speaker: She meets Mimi, describes her as an ice queen.
Speaker: She also meets Thomas, who is like a very gorgeous British guy.
Speaker: And they get kind of flirty.
Speaker: And then she like walks the plank and jumps into the pool at this party to like become part of the friend group.
Speaker: So she's like...
Speaker: Two seconds ago was like Mopey McGee.
Speaker: And now she's like, hot boys.
Speaker: It was giving very like along for the ride when Auden is like, I'm really shy, but I will go to this party at the Dunes.
Speaker: I'll be there.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I don't want to get to know anybody and I'm leaving tomorrow, but also I'll flirt with all of you.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: Which is her prerogative.
Speaker: More power to her.
Speaker: So now she's back to reading the journal.
Speaker: And so there's like two stories going on.
Speaker: There's Lena living her life and having her like Florence experience.
Speaker: And then we also are like fully entrenched in like Hadley and her journal and her thoughts and her experience in Florence.
Speaker: So it kind of goes back and forth.
Speaker: So Hadley is writing that she's in love, but it's a secret relationship and will only write about him as like this guy named X. I was just thinking like, how hard would it have been for her mom to just tell her who X is?
Speaker: Like, this is absurd.
Speaker: So not only does the journal like only give half the information the whole time, but now like Lena is like,
Speaker: automatically assuming X is Howard.
Speaker: Here's the thing though.
Speaker: If Lena, maybe the mom was expecting that Lena would get the journal and read it in one sitting because it's short.
Speaker: And instead, Lena thinks that X is Howard for a long time and the answer is in the book.
Speaker: Yeah, Lena is kind of dumb about that, though, because her mom writes like, I am friends with this person and this person, and I'm really good friends with Howard, and he's so great.
Speaker: And then all of a sudden, it's like, I'm dating X. It's like, okay, like... Probably not Howard.
Speaker: Probably not Howard.
Speaker: She already talked about Howard.
Speaker: And there's like an implication that I suspected that he was like a professor of some sort, because the way she writes about why she has to keep his identity secret was very much...
Speaker: Pointing that way and not pointing to Howard?
Speaker: Yeah, but nothing points to Howard, and for whatever reason, Lena, like, cannot wrap her brain around it for so long.
Speaker: Lena's grandma pointed to Howard, and that was it.
Speaker: I guess it would be confusing, but I saw the movie first, so I already, like...
Speaker: For what I did know from the movie, I was like already assuming it wasn't him.
Speaker: But maybe if I had been just reading, it would have been more shocking.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Spoiler alert, it's not him.
Speaker: Yeah, there you go.
Speaker: Howard is not her dad.
Speaker: Now we're back to Lena and Ren and they're growing closer and she decides to fill him in on the whole like Howard journal situation, which I feel like is really opening up to this new person she just met five days ago.
Speaker: But that's sweet.
Speaker: And he's really nice.
Speaker: And it's like obvious he really likes her.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But for some reason, they just are blind.
Speaker: She's got nobody.
Speaker: Well, yeah.
Speaker: And he doesn't he read some of the journal, but just a little at a time as well.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So he she'll like read a chunk and then he will like read that same chunk.
Speaker: If I was him, I'd be like secretly while she's sleeping on the train.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: He like really handles it with care.
Speaker: And now we are with Hadley and X reading the journal again.
Speaker: And apparently things aren't going great with them.
Speaker: He like says he loves her, but then also treats her like a friend and doesn't want to tell anybody.
Speaker: And this seems kind of shitty.
Speaker: And Hadley doesn't know how long she's going to be spending in Florence to begin with.
Speaker: Her parents want her home, but she wants to stay.
Speaker: Now Hadley's writing more about why she wants to stay.
Speaker: She like writes about her friends and stuff.
Speaker: And she writes about how much she likes Howard by name.
Speaker: So who the hell's X?
Speaker: And if she had just kept reading, she would have known all this.
Speaker: But instead, we got three more chapters of this book before we figured out Howard is mentioned by name.
Speaker: And even that doesn't really sell her, actually, now that I know.
Speaker: She thinks it's like my mom forgot to put an X there.
Speaker: Lena's not a detective.
Speaker: I think she really wants it.
Speaker: to be Howard, which is confusing because in real life with Howard, she doesn't seem like she really wants him to be her dad.
Speaker: So it's weird that when she's reading, she's so insisting when she's reading that like, yep, this is my dad.
Speaker: Can't be anybody else.
Speaker: It's Howard.
Speaker: And so like X and Hadley, not Lena, X and Lena, Hadley, oh my God.
Speaker: X and Hadley go to clubs and
Speaker: And one of the club is called Space.
Speaker: And apparently it's still around.
Speaker: So Lena and Wren go to Space 2 to, like, see where Hadley was.
Speaker: And it's, like, a big club.
Speaker: And they're having a lot of fun.
Speaker: And they're both kind of frazzled by each other.
Speaker: Lena, like, goes off on her own.
Speaker: And some guy basically assaults her.
Speaker: And Mimi, like, steps in and saves her.
Speaker: Go, Mimi.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And, I mean, Mimi's, like, kind of bitchy to her about it.
Speaker: But like she still helped her.
Speaker: So, and then Thomas, for whatever reason, like doesn't really care.
Speaker: And Ren is super upset about it.
Speaker: So Thomas is maybe not seeming like the most interesting person in the room, but he's still really hot.
Speaker: Ren pulls like a, I'm just going back to all the episodes, the kissing booth, pulls like a Flynn.
Speaker: Is that his name?
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: What's his name?
Speaker: A Noah Flynn.
Speaker: He's very upset, which as he should be, but.
Speaker: Yeah, he wants to protect her.
Speaker: And then they like, he takes her away from the club and I think they just spend the rest of the night like hanging out.
Speaker: And he takes her to the statue and then he like reveals that he.
Speaker: So Hadley had written about how X showed her where like a midnight bakery is.
Speaker: So it's like these bakeries start baking things really early in the morning or like midnight and on so that pastries and stuff can be ready for people's breakfast by like 6am.
Speaker: So sometimes they'll like sell out the back door when they're first freshly baked.
Speaker: So it's like a midnight bakery that X took Hadley to.
Speaker: So Ren sneaky tries to like figure out where it is by talking to Howard about it.
Speaker: And Howard apparently had like no recollection and was like, I've never even heard of those.
Speaker: That sounds so cool.
Speaker: Like, let me know when you find out.
Speaker: So then it's becoming more clear, like Lena finally is getting it that Howard is an X.
Speaker: But now we don't know who X is.
Speaker: And X has broken up with Hadley in the journal and moved to Rome unexpectedly.
Speaker: And Hadley is like heartbroken.
Speaker: It's very sad.
Speaker: Yeah, even though he sucked.
Speaker: So they want more information on like who X is and who all these people Hadley keeps talking about are.
Speaker: So Ren takes Lena to the photography school that her mom was enrolled in.
Speaker: And they initially want to just find out more about her mom's roommate, Francesca.
Speaker: And like the head teacher there happily gives all that info about Francesca and just like spews all this stuff.
Speaker: And then they ask about X and he like clams up and is like, I don't remember anything about anyone actually.
Speaker: My bad.
Speaker: Goodbye.
Speaker: So they call Francesca because they got all her information before that guy clammed up.
Speaker: And Francesca gives the name of X and his name is Matteo Rossi.
Speaker: And he was a professor who was fired from the school.
Speaker: So hence the secretive nature.
Speaker: So we finally know, and it's seeming like Mattio Rossi is someone they need to talk to.
Speaker: So they Google him, and apparently Lena looks just like him.
Speaker: And nothing like Howard.
Speaker: Yeah, Howard is like blondie boy.
Speaker: Mattio apparently has Lena's like dark, dark hair, curly hair, and darker eyes.
Speaker: He's Italian, and Howard is American.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: Howard is from like what, South Africa?
Speaker: Is he from South Carolina?
Speaker: Maybe.
Speaker: I feel like he also was from the South.
Speaker: Him and Wren's mom were both from some Southern state.
Speaker: I feel like- I just don't remember.
Speaker: If I'm not making that up though, then that's crazy that Hadley named her daughter Carolina.
Speaker: I forget that that's Lena's name.
Speaker: Her name's like Carolina.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But it's spelled Carolina.
Speaker: And then so if Howard's from South Carolina, that is wild.
Speaker: That's probably where he's from.
Speaker: I bet that was an Easter egg.
Speaker: Now that they know about Mattie O'Rossi, they think either Howard doesn't know or Howard's purposely lying about being her dad.
Speaker: And neither of these like really upset Lena.
Speaker: I feel like I would be like, I can't stay with this man anymore.
Speaker: I don't know who he is.
Speaker: And both of these options are not good.
Speaker: But instead, she just goes on home and has pasta dinner with him and is happy as a clam.
Speaker: Can I interject really fast to drop a crazy fact about the Howard of it all?
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: I listened to an author interview and she said that all along as she was writing, she planned for Howard to actually be the biological dad.
Speaker: And then a few weeks before her final draft was due, she changed it to be this other guy.
Speaker: And then the whole rest of the story like clicked into place and like she changed everything after.
Speaker: But for a long time, Howard was the dad.
Speaker: That's a whole different book.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I know.
Speaker: I was like, release the other draft.
Speaker: Yeah, it's so crazy.
Speaker: Yeah, what would even be the plot of that book?
Speaker: There couldn't be a journal.
Speaker: No, just like them bonding.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: What a weird, different vibe.
Speaker: I bet you would have liked that book better with no journal.
Speaker: Maybe.
Speaker: Or like, I wouldn't mind a journal if it wasn't a mystery.
Speaker: I feel like as soon as someone's like, I'm missing some information and it's probably in here and they're not flipping to the end, I'm like, what's happening?
Speaker: Because you're not a human.
Speaker: They have self-control that we just couldn't possibly relate to.
Speaker: They're like, I know I'm a character.
Speaker: I'm a protagonist.
Speaker: And this is what protagonists do.
Speaker: I would flip right to the end and this story would end.
Speaker: Well, have you met anyone?
Speaker: Like there are people who when they're picking out books, they read the last page to find out if they want to read that book.
Speaker: I haven't met anybody that does that, but I've heard that before.
Speaker: If that's a thing.
Speaker: Yeah, I'm so sorry to any of our listeners who are that person, but that's crazy.
Speaker: Could you tell us more about that if that's you?
Speaker: Yeah, I need to understand.
Speaker: What are you even getting from it?
Speaker: Like the last page never does anything wrong.
Speaker: worthwhile.
Speaker: Wait, when I was little, I was reading the, my mom got me a little house in the Prairie box set and I read like the first couple.
Speaker: And then I was overwhelmed by how many there were.
Speaker: There were like, I think six or seven and they were getting longer over time.
Speaker: And they were her like favorite books from childhood.
Speaker: And it was like a big deal that I had them and she wanted me to like them and wanted me to read them.
Speaker: And for the last half, I would start, I would open it, read the first couple chapters, skip to the end, read the last couple chapters.
Speaker: And then be like, Mom, I read it.
Speaker: Here's what happened.
Speaker: Cheater!
Speaker: And it wasn't for like a decade.
Speaker: I just forgot to tell her.
Speaker: And then one day I was like, yeah, I've never really read those books.
Speaker: I went back and read them a couple summers ago.
Speaker: Because I was like, yeah, I really just... Front and back chapters was all I got for most of those.
Speaker: I know nothing in the middle.
Speaker: That was probably all you needed.
Speaker: Oh my gosh.
Speaker: I feel like I was a similar way of series of unfortunate events.
Speaker: I think I would read like every other book in that series because the first like eight chapters of each book was just the last fucking book.
Speaker: And it used to drive me crazy.
Speaker: Oh, I don't remember that.
Speaker: That's a smart hack of yours then.
Speaker: It was like such a recap.
Speaker: I think because...
Speaker: It can be for like a lot younger children.
Speaker: And I already didn't really like to read.
Speaker: So then I felt like I was being punished.
Speaker: It's like I made it through book one.
Speaker: Why are you making me do this all again?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And you're going in the right order.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: oh my gosh where are we what are we not up to that was my bad yeah how dare you um they're taking the train to rome so they decide they need to meet matty oh i'm like how you said oh like you didn't read this book also i wasn't sure when that part was coming they're doing it now okay they get on the train they go to rome they end up at the
Speaker: It's like a gallery that – I guess it's Matteo, not Matteo.
Speaker: Sorry.
Speaker: I don't like Matteo.
Speaker: Italian.
Speaker: Matteo.
Speaker: Matteo.
Speaker: Matteo has a photo in his gallery, and it's taken by Hadley, and it's of baby or, like, toddler Lena.
Speaker: And the title of the photo is Carolina.
Speaker: So, like, this man knows about her.
Speaker: Like, that's so fucking weird of him.
Speaker: And has her up in his gallery to look at.
Speaker: It's very weird.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Lena is like, I actually am out.
Speaker: I don't want to do this.
Speaker: And right as she's trying to leave, Matty-O, like, takes Lena away to, like, talk to her privately.
Speaker: And it's just, like, a grade-A asshole.
Speaker: Did you... What did you think of that scene is not...
Speaker: in the book directly it's like mentioned after the fact i really wanted the con like her meeting her dad that moment i wanted it i wanted to read it and it was just like the next scene was like her walking out and like reflecting on how badly it had gone and i was like what i wasn't there kind of reminded me of like we didn't get to see eli
Speaker: reject Auden.
Speaker: Yeah, in a long time.
Speaker: It was like her telling her friends what happened.
Speaker: That was the same vibe.
Speaker: I know I wanted to like be in the moment so that I don't know if I could like make her say
Speaker: nastier things back to him i guess that isn't at all what would be possible but be angry with her and exactly so instead we just had to hear he says like shitty things that his mom was making up the whole relationship and she wrote this journal to like frame him and she was like sleeping around and wasn't her dad and it was like very bizarre like this man's a crazy person
Speaker: This man has been waiting for this moment for as long as Lena's been alive.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: He's been prepping.
Speaker: It was.
Speaker: To just be defensive and mean.
Speaker: Wild.
Speaker: So he, like, tries to gaslight her into thinking her mom is crazy.
Speaker: And it, like, doesn't work.
Speaker: That's so fucked up.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I don't think she, like, really falls for it.
Speaker: But she does feel pretty shitty after.
Speaker: So she runs outside and like runs into Ren and he is like consoling her.
Speaker: And then in this moment they kiss and it does like not go well.
Speaker: So like it goes really well until Ren pulls away and gets weird and
Speaker: And says like the timing's not good.
Speaker: But then before he can explain, Lena's like, yeah, no, right.
Speaker: Like you're just a friend.
Speaker: And like words out nonsense.
Speaker: And then for whatever reason, he like really takes that as fact.
Speaker: Even though they were just kissing two seconds ago.
Speaker: And like they both have like this very awkward next like four days.
Speaker: It's so confusing.
Speaker: She really sells it, I guess.
Speaker: I'm not sure.
Speaker: I'm not sure.
Speaker: He hooked one and sing her.
Speaker: Either.
Speaker: I don't get how neither of them felt like they needed to talk more.
Speaker: I think I'm a last word person in arguments.
Speaker: So maybe that's why I just never understand this level of communication.
Speaker: Because I'll just keep spewing what I think happened until the other person is losing their mind.
Speaker: Which is why I think you don't like miscommunication subplots because it would not be you.
Speaker: No, I would never look this person in the eye and be like, they don't get what I'm saying.
Speaker: I'm just going to shut up now.
Speaker: Like, I'm going to keep telling you till you get it.
Speaker: Which maybe isn't the best either, but we could find a happy medium.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But then where would we get the last 50 pages?
Speaker: Yeah, you're right.
Speaker: We need this to happen.
Speaker: At this point, Hadley and Howard are falling in love.
Speaker: She's like moved to the cemetery.
Speaker: And like pregnant already, but like only kind of half knows.
Speaker: And like she's like figuring it out more, but she falls in love with Howard first and then finds out she's pregnant like three days later.
Speaker: So she's like slept with Howard, but it definitely can't be.
Speaker: Yeah, it can't be.
Speaker: Right as that's like all happening, Matteo asks Hadley to go to Rome because he has like a big announcement for her.
Speaker: And since she knows she's pregnant and knows it's his,
Speaker: she agrees to go and like tell him about the pregnancy and is basically like, I need to do the right thing and like be with this man since he has this big announcement for me and obviously wants me back.
Speaker: Like we're going to do this right.
Speaker: And then it turns out that his big announcement is that he wants Hadley to join his like business plan of like a photography travel business.
Speaker: But even though she's a really successful, great photographer, she's like,
Speaker: He wants her to join by booking accommodations and arranging travel for the tourists.
Speaker: And was like, maybe when you're more established, you can, like, teach a class.
Speaker: What a guy.
Speaker: He is so fucking annoying.
Speaker: She's like, oh, okay.
Speaker: Well, also, I'm pregnant.
Speaker: And he, like, totally freaks out and gets really violent to the point where she's like, LOL, JK, it's not your baby.
Speaker: I'm just pregnant.
Speaker: Like, goodbye.
Speaker: So she like does what she has to do to leave the situation.
Speaker: Which is maybe why he said that to Lena.
Speaker: But he has the photo of her.
Speaker: He knows.
Speaker: I'm sure he knows.
Speaker: Someone.
Speaker: I mean she wouldn't accidentally say the wrong name.
Speaker: And then be like just kidding.
Speaker: It was actually Howard.
Speaker: My bad.
Speaker: Like he's got to be smarter than to believe that.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's so bizarre.
Speaker: Seems like that's what he wanted.
Speaker: I think so.
Speaker: But then I. You would think.
Speaker: If he wants her as part of the business, like it seemed like he wanted her around still.
Speaker: I'm shocked he didn't use this as like a way to trap her.
Speaker: But I guess it works out for her that he doesn't.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So she leaves Italy and she does this to protect Howard from like completely changing his life for her.
Speaker: Because Howard like would have either like dropped everything to be with her or would have like left Italy even though he loves it.
Speaker: to be with her which like that's not your choice to make i don't like when people make choices for the what someone else would want or what would be better for them like this guy goes his whole life like i think he was happy living on the cemetery and working there but maybe he would have been happier being a stepdad to lena like who knows he didn't get to pick yeah he definitely sounds like he's happy in the cemetery but like really lonely
Speaker: Like he never gave anyone ever.
Speaker: He's so in love with her.
Speaker: He's just stuck on her still.
Speaker: It's crazy, which also is wild, but that's his choice, I guess.
Speaker: And another reason she leaves is because I guess they throw in some weird politics about like Italian divorce and custody law unexpectedly.
Speaker: And it makes it sound like if she had stayed in the country, Matteo could have very easily like tied himself together.
Speaker: to Hadley and Lena forever.
Speaker: So Hadley like didn't even want that to be an option.
Speaker: So that's why she never took Lena to visit.
Speaker: She like was never going to reenter the country on the off chance that Mateo, Matty-o, what is his name?
Speaker: Probably Mateo.
Speaker: And that's like the conclusion of the journal pretty much.
Speaker: And I guess we still don't really know that I made the wrong choice thing.
Speaker: What specifically that's about.
Speaker: What do you think we're... I think that note isn't for Lena.
Speaker: I thought it was for Howard.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I thought we found out the journal was for... Were you getting to that and I just...
Speaker: spoiler alert the journal was for howard the whole time i couldn't remember if it was she sent it to sonia i don't know or did sonia open it and like i can't remember why sonia has it because it was mailed maybe she's like in charge of the mail at the cemetery she like works in the office so maybe she just got the mail and was like oh this must be for lena i forgot that that was so more miscommunication
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I don't know why anyone's making decisions on their own.
Speaker: Everything should be a group decision.
Speaker: That's include everybody.
Speaker: Let's make everything a group chat, please.
Speaker: From now on, you guys obviously can't be trusted to do things on their own.
Speaker: That is how that ends.
Speaker: And then Lena like has this big realization and like is worried that she's going to have to break the news to Howard that he's not her dad.
Speaker: And she like really drags her feet on this.
Speaker: But then finally she like just has him read the journal.
Speaker: Which he reads in as he should one sitting.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Howard is your guy.
Speaker: The next day he's like done.
Speaker: Read it.
Speaker: It's like thank you.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: He does not play around.
Speaker: And then they get to talk about it.
Speaker: And then he reveals that like he knew he wasn't her father.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: but was worried she wouldn't come if she knew.
Speaker: So he wanted to be a safe place for her to come to.
Speaker: Even though she kind of was forced to come against her will.
Speaker: I don't know if I totally agree with Howard.
Speaker: Luckily, he's a nice guy.
Speaker: But it makes them sound real creepy.
Speaker: It ends well, so it's easier to be like, okay, Howard makes sense, but it could have gone a lot of ways.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I mean, ultimately, it's Hadley's fault that this whole situation was so...
Speaker: Bizarre.
Speaker: But no one else really helped anything.
Speaker: So Howard has like... So Howard like grew up with all these people in the journal.
Speaker: So he like knows exactly what Hadley's talking about in a way that like Lena missed a bunch of stuff.
Speaker: So Howard was able to explain that Mateo was like actually having affairs with a bunch of other students.
Speaker: And Howard is the one who brought it to the school and got him fired.
Speaker: And was like, you need to leave Hadley alone.
Speaker: So like, that's why Mateo breaks up with Hadley in the first place.
Speaker: Why Howard didn't talk to Hadley then either is beyond me.
Speaker: He like tried to like tell her something through like a statue metaphor way back.
Speaker: And then tried to do it again with Lena with a different statue to the point where Lena's like, you need to stop doing that.
Speaker: That obviously doesn't work.
Speaker: Neither of us knew we were trying to tell us anything.
Speaker: They're like nothing if not consistent in their confusing, just lack of communication.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: Every one of them.
Speaker: They stick with it.
Speaker: But Lena still wants Howard in her life as like family.
Speaker: So like that all wraps up nicely.
Speaker: But she's still having issues with Ren and decides to like go to a party with Thomas to make up with Ren, which is a bonkers idea.
Speaker: And then Ren gets mad at her and is like, why'd you come here with Thomas?
Speaker: And she's like, why are you still dating Mimi?
Speaker: And he's like, and then they get in a huge fight.
Speaker: But she wakes up that night to coins being thrown at her window.
Speaker: And Wren found the midnight bakery and he brings her croissants and they make up and they're falling in love.
Speaker: And Lena's going to stay in Italy and they live happily ever after.
Speaker: And that, my friends, is love and gelato.
Speaker: And it's not how the movie goes.
Speaker: And then we have the horrible movie.
Speaker: I have to tell you a couple of things about the book first, being that a lot of this is based off of not really her own experience, but the writer went to high school in Florence and she had a friend who grew up in an American cemetery right outside of Florence.
Speaker: And she was a runner and used to run through the headstones in the mornings.
Speaker: And the author said that when she was 16, she thought that would make a good setting for a book.
Speaker: And then she wrote the book.
Speaker: And she specifically based that party scene off of her last night in Florence.
Speaker: I don't know how much of it.
Speaker: And she spent years trying to write this without Hadley's journal entries and then eventually stuck her in there.
Speaker: And that kind of like unlocked the story.
Speaker: I guess so.
Speaker: I don't know what the story is without that.
Speaker: So I guess I see her point.
Speaker: As far as publishing, her dad is a writer and he showed her book to a publisher against her will.
Speaker: Oh.
Speaker: That's how she got published.
Speaker: She didn't have to do the whole, like, crappy search for an agent querying thing.
Speaker: We keep reading these books where, like, people put in no effort.
Speaker: They just sneeze and their book gets published.
Speaker: Yeah, and then she didn't have plans for a trilogy.
Speaker: The publishers.
Speaker: Wanted that.
Speaker: And she was inspired by characters in her previous book.
Speaker: So like the next book, Love and Luck stars Addie.
Speaker: And I think Love and Olive says it's a character.
Speaker: Yeah, I didn't even mention Addie.
Speaker: Sorry, you guys.
Speaker: She's like the best friend.
Speaker: Yeah, she's her friend.
Speaker: Oh, as far as love and gelato goes for the author, Lovewise married two kids and her favorite gelato is chocolate with hazelnuts.
Speaker: And as I get into the movie, I'd like to start with this.
Speaker: I was listening to a YouTube interview of the author with like a booktuber.
Speaker: And the girl asked the author what she thought of the movie, and her response was she played it very safe.
Speaker: She said, wow, dog.
Speaker: Actually, that was my cat that time.
Speaker: She said, I had no involvement in this movie.
Speaker: Also, my readers had a mixed reaction.
Speaker: And I was like, got it.
Speaker: I know how you feel.
Speaker: You've made it clear without saying anything.
Speaker: One of my things that I found out when looking into the movie was,
Speaker: What she said about the adaptation process, her quote is, I was very hands-off.
Speaker: I knew my limitations.
Speaker: I had a lot going on at that moment as a writer and a mother, and I felt it was the right thing to do to put the story into the hands of movie makers I trusted.
Speaker: And then mine now is woof.
Speaker: Woof.
Speaker: So the movie opens at a Pumpkin Spice Fleetwood Mac funeral.
Speaker: Oh my god.
Speaker: I blocked that out for sure.
Speaker: The coffin was Pumpkin Spice Orange.
Speaker: That's great.
Speaker: That's not a color, but that's fine.
Speaker: There was a Fleetwood Mac cover band, if I remember right.
Speaker: And the mom's living wish...
Speaker: was for lena to continue their rome graduation trip because in this version of the story they were going to go together um when rain rain lena whoa when lena graduated from high school so instead the mom was like since i can't go with you i'd like you to still go that's my dying wish living we have so far already they're going to rome not florence not going to school in florence it's like expensive to shoot there or something
Speaker: And it's just like a vacation.
Speaker: And it's shorter.
Speaker: It's not like months, I don't think.
Speaker: Or it's not supposed to be.
Speaker: Oh my god.
Speaker: But so Francesca is the one who picks up Lena at the airport because this time she's not like a friend of Hadley's who exists over the phone for five minutes.
Speaker: She's like one of the five main characters in this movie.
Speaker: Luckily, Lena speaks Italian like fluently.
Speaker: So fucking confusing.
Speaker: I just wrote a note that it seemed odd that one summer of Hadley living with Francesca and Howie, who in this is her cousin, made these two so invested that they would like keep this stranger teenager.
Speaker: I like wanted a movie about Hadley's time with them because I was like, what kind of impression would you have to make for like 18 years later to be like, yeah, I'll take your kid in.
Speaker: We haven't spoken in 18 years, but that summer was really something.
Speaker: It's so confusing.
Speaker: She meets Howard like pretty quickly.
Speaker: Like I said, he's Francesca's cousin.
Speaker: And she meets him.
Speaker: Her Irish cousin, this very Italian woman's Irish man.
Speaker: I forgot he's not.
Speaker: He's not American in this.
Speaker: I think the movie makers did.
Speaker: They were drunk.
Speaker: and couldn't remember what their ideas were or what the book was about.
Speaker: They read the first couple chapters and the last couple chapters, Riley, and then they're like, yeah, we figured it out.
Speaker: They pulled a little house.
Speaker: The boys' names are different, so our, like, Ren, quote-unquote, is, no, sorry, wrong person.
Speaker: I'm getting confused.
Speaker: Not Wren.
Speaker: The guy who's like sort of Thomas adjacent.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: Is Harvard bound Alessandro who Lena just meets like walking around Rome and he flirts real hard and is like, see you around.
Speaker: And of course, because it's Roman, it's such a small city, you know, they do see each other around.
Speaker: But Francesca gives Lena the diary at this point.
Speaker: It's sent from mom.
Speaker: The diary starts off exactly the same.
Speaker: That seems like very true to the book, weirdly, for five minutes in the beginning.
Speaker: And then we get a little glimpse of Ale, Alessandro, and his mean dad.
Speaker: And he calls her chaotically by finding...
Speaker: this like fake Instagram that Addie made for Lena and messaging that and then Addie like giving Lena's phone number because she's like this guy's hot I'm just gonna give my friend's number up
Speaker: So he like cold calls Lena and invites her to an opera where she cries at the opera in this sweet little moment.
Speaker: And then he makes her run over this place while she's screaming at him to stop.
Speaker: She's like really liking this opera, like obviously moved by it and enjoying her time.
Speaker: He looks over, sees that that's happening and is like,
Speaker: Let's get the fuck out of here.
Speaker: Let's get chased by security.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And he's like, it's fun.
Speaker: I promise.
Speaker: And like this girl, like things are just wild with her dress.
Speaker: She's in like this weird rainbow sequin dress that has like absolutely no support.
Speaker: If you guys know what I mean for running around a museum.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And she's in heels.
Speaker: Looks miserable.
Speaker: I would have been so annoyed.
Speaker: And this horrible date ends with the dad like intervening and basically calling Ali like a womanizer in front of her and being like, you do this all the time with all the ladies.
Speaker: And for whatever reason, that like offends her.
Speaker: Who is torturing that dog?
Speaker: Like, I already told you that's my cat.
Speaker: She's, like, trying to leave because she, you're right, she's very offended by the fact that this guy who would bring someone he just met in stock on Instagram to an opera would possibly do this with anybody else.
Speaker: Like, as if he's not, like, textbook, he clearly just picks up tourists.
Speaker: She runs into Lorenzo on her way out, who is, like, the Wren, I guess, of this movie.
Speaker: Kind of weird.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: Not really, but he's.
Speaker: Took away everything that makes Ren cute and funny and interesting and then created this bizarre, boring human.
Speaker: He's a pastry chef who we've met briefly when she met Howard.
Speaker: He was like a grad student or one of, I don't know what Howard teachers is.
Speaker: I don't know what any of them are doing.
Speaker: Baking?
Speaker: I have no idea.
Speaker: But he is a pastry chef and he takes her to a secret bakery, which is how that winds up in the movie.
Speaker: And then that
Speaker: little secret cute date on a Vespa ends when Ale, like, finds her home.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Because she's getting dropped off by Ren.
Speaker: And he just shows up at her house and is like, what are you doing with Lorenzo?
Speaker: Who he, of course, knows.
Speaker: And she's like, how do you know where I live?
Speaker: Yeah, why does he know?
Speaker: I forget what he says.
Speaker: He has an answer for why he knows.
Speaker: Concerning, unless she gave it to him, you just shouldn't show up.
Speaker: Then we get like this little sort of montage of Howard hands over the mom's camera and she like looks at her mom's pictures and then she becomes a budding photographer who takes a lot of pictures of statues.
Speaker: Oh, they're the most like, it's like you gave a three-year-old a camera.
Speaker: It's like me.
Speaker: There are weird angles.
Speaker: There's nothing interesting about the lighting.
Speaker: And it's a film camera too.
Speaker: It's very nice.
Speaker: So like this is what you're taking like $400 worth of bad photos.
Speaker: Your mom is probably rolling in her pumpkin spice grave.
Speaker: The love triangle progresses with Lena going cliff jumping with Ollie where she learns about his tough Nepo baby life.
Speaker: She feels bad for him and they kiss only for hours later for her to like through her
Speaker: Friends, Instagram stalking.
Speaker: Wait, she, like, asked him to be exclusive.
Speaker: Yeah, they have, like, a conversation about only dating each other, which he's, like, never done.
Speaker: And they literally just met.
Speaker: He says he's all for it, but then when she's on the phone with Addie, Addie's, like, Instagram stalking this, like, restaurant that he's at and finds, like, a picture of him with some girl.
Speaker: So then Lena's, like, I...
Speaker: who just got to Italy and haven't, don't know Rome at all.
Speaker: I'm going to like go on foot to this restaurant, barge in, in my sweatpants and interrupt this date for this, like not my boyfriend of many years, but like make a huge scene for this guy.
Speaker: I just met and confront him with another girl.
Speaker: It does turn out that this is a date with this other girl, but girl is like the loosest term because this is a woman.
Speaker: Like this could have,
Speaker: I thought she was a cousin or something.
Speaker: This is my like older sister of 30 years.
Speaker: Yeah, I would have believed him.
Speaker: I thought that was what was going to happen.
Speaker: And then he like never said it wasn't a date.
Speaker: But oh my God, it was like the secondhand embarrassment from this moment was terrible.
Speaker: Yeah, she made some for someone who considered herself awkward and shy.
Speaker: She made some really like very in public decisions and announcements and outbursts that had me like
Speaker: shaking yeah because then she just goes and gets drunk yeah and she talks to howard about love right after that conversation she's reading her mom's journal and she finds out her mom was pregnant and so she immediately thinks it's howie no one's told her unlike the book there's no grandma being like that's your dad um so she comes to this conclusion on her own yeah and it's like reading the journal for like any reason other than because it was given her it kind of made more sense in the movie that she would take it slower because there was no like
Speaker: Until she got to this pregnant thing, there was no mystery in there.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And she's, like, heavily hinting that she knows something when she's, like, going out to lunch with Francesca and Howie.
Speaker: They're bringing her to Lorenzo and his family's place for, like, a meal.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: And in this version... How do you have that whole thing?
Speaker: Lorenzo, he says that he's dating... I think her name is Mimi in this.
Speaker: I have no idea.
Speaker: No, it's, like...
Speaker: Girardelli.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: The chocolate heir.
Speaker: Gorgina.
Speaker: Well, okay, so Gorgina is like a real... We find out later, like... She's like an on-again, off-again girlfriend, and they're currently, like, sort of off, but they, like, make out, or she makes out with Ren in front of Lena just to, like, stake a claim.
Speaker: In the... Just like the book, it sort of acts like only, like,
Speaker: mean nasty girls who are like too i don't know ambitious in their racing like too confident get cheated on it's very like this girl deserves it she's a bitch is the vibe i got she was a race car driver mm-hmm she's speaking of racing and driving you know how like francesca drives in the movie yeah she like zips around like a crazy yeah
Speaker: It turns out that that car that she's driving is an electric car.
Speaker: So they had to like add all those noises.
Speaker: Like either way, they would add it.
Speaker: Like that car would never, ever even sound or move like that.
Speaker: That's really funny.
Speaker: After that, she kind of like explodes at lunch in front of all these strangers and like accuses Howard of keeping it secret from her that he's her dad.
Speaker: just in front of everybody i feel like that gets like it's not resolved right there instead there's like a scene of it was like another public display of of tears and yelling and she didn't even eat the gelato she just stood up and left the girlfriend's name is georgia you were close g-i-o-r-g-i-a
Speaker: That sounded like... Why it's not Mimi, I don't know.
Speaker: After this, Ali apologizes to her for having dinner with a friend.
Speaker: It's very unconvincing.
Speaker: They make him, by the way, like the face of this movie when you look it up on Netflix.
Speaker: It's like a picture of him only.
Speaker: I'm just like...
Speaker: This guy is gross and he's not even the love interest.
Speaker: Why are we putting him front and center?
Speaker: But anyway, she's like unconvinced by this, but she's not like breaking things off with him.
Speaker: It's sort of murky.
Speaker: And then she is going to Florence.
Speaker: At this point, she figures out that her dad lives in Florence.
Speaker: It's like flip-flopped.
Speaker: She figures out that her dad is the art gallery guy.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Howard and Francesca.
Speaker: And she's like, okay, I'm going to go.
Speaker: And of course, Lorenzo happens to be on the same train.
Speaker: He's like off to Florence for some like audition for baking.
Speaker: This was crazy.
Speaker: This is like single handedly the craziest part of this whole movie.
Speaker: Then he gives her the gelato that was like his homework.
Speaker: Why?
Speaker: It was part of his audition.
Speaker: And so then he shows up to the audition with nothing because he and he doesn't even explain.
Speaker: I gave it to a sad girl on a train.
Speaker: It was so insane.
Speaker: And they spend like the whole day in Florence together, which it's weird to me that if he was going there that early, it implied to me he needed to spend some time prepping or I was like, how does he have so many hours to be running around?
Speaker: I was so stressed out for him.
Speaker: Yeah, I thought he would miss it completely.
Speaker: It didn't really matter.
Speaker: He tanked it and he didn't get it, but maybe this was why.
Speaker: She also tanks.
Speaker: She goes to the dad's gallery, finds a picture of the mom, confronts him, takes it off the wall.
Speaker: I loved that.
Speaker: Fair.
Speaker: chaotic move just like the book her and lorenzo were like they like kiss in their sadness and then she immediately calls it a mistake as soon as like he shows hesitation she's like oh no and then they both just are like bad idea and they both lie to each other i don't think it's ever been my first thought to just like immediately lie
Speaker: about anything she's like oh it's kind of like you know you're with georgia or whatever her name is even though he just said they were like off at the moment but whatever they leave like very confused and clearly like each other but won't say so then she's like howard i'm out of here i'm leaving here's the camera back
Speaker: And then as she's getting ready to leave, Addie shows up because Howard, Francesco like told Howard he needed to like pull all the stops to make sure she stayed.
Speaker: So they fly out her front.
Speaker: I don't know how this became Howard's job.
Speaker: He's not even her dad.
Speaker: No.
Speaker: And he like wasn't even enlisted by Hadley.
Speaker: It's great.
Speaker: Francesco us.
Speaker: So then Addie's like, here I am.
Speaker: Let's go to a party.
Speaker: All you need to know about her is that she photoshops herself into European scenes for her Instagram that she's never been to.
Speaker: Book Addie is like really nice and supportive and movie Addie is just a nightmare.
Speaker: Well, in her defense, there's this Lena's a nightmare when they go to the party because when Lena like ends things with Ali and is like, I'm done with you.
Speaker: And then she finds out that Lorenzo has left and is like going to the train station to like leave the country.
Speaker: She's like, OK, I'm going to leave this party.
Speaker: And she doesn't tell Addie she's going anywhere.
Speaker: And then Addie in a foreign country comes running down the stairs and is like, where are you going?
Speaker: What are we doing?
Speaker: Yeah, you were going to leave her at a party of strangers in a country she's never been to.
Speaker: She's probably jet lagged.
Speaker: She just got there like two hours ago.
Speaker: And get this.
Speaker: She wanted to leave her to Vespa to a train station.
Speaker: She almost leaves her rent at a party to track this man down and tell him, I'm choosing myself, not you.
Speaker: She's not even leaving to go like get him over or be like, you know, Jennifer Aniston, I got off the plane.
Speaker: There's nothing like that.
Speaker: She's just like,
Speaker: I picked myself.
Speaker: She wanted to tell him to his face that he didn't stand a chance.
Speaker: She wanted to end it in person.
Speaker: Then there was just, I feel like, bombshell after bombshell where I was just like, what is happening?
Speaker: She was like, one, I'm deferring college for a year.
Speaker: MIT.
Speaker: MIT.
Speaker: Deferred.
Speaker: Howard, you want to be my adopted father?
Speaker: I'm going to call you dad.
Speaker: Which is wild.
Speaker: And then we like fast forward to an entire year later.
Speaker: She's got bangs, a bob, and she's got a passion for photography.
Speaker: And she's just walking around taking pictures where she runs into Lorenzo, who this is the only thing that made sense.
Speaker: He's taking over the secret bakery.
Speaker: It doesn't make sense.
Speaker: With what money?
Speaker: He just graduated high school.
Speaker: Did he not?
Speaker: This boy's 19.
Speaker: I don't think he bought it.
Speaker: I think that lady was like, take this over.
Speaker: He still needs money.
Speaker: He made it a restaurant.
Speaker: I don't know about Italy's small business loans.
Speaker: I have no idea.
Speaker: But it tracked for her being a photography person.
Speaker: I was like, what's happening?
Speaker: I will say this transformation rivals.
Speaker: It's up there with the level of shock I felt at the end of the Kissing Booth 3 transformation that we were supposed to.
Speaker: Oh, can't wait till we get to that.
Speaker: As far as awful wigs and bizarre age ups.
Speaker: That's really the end.
Speaker: And ugly glasses.
Speaker: They leave for a date on, she has her own Vespa.
Speaker: So they go on a date and they write her Vespa.
Speaker: And that's the end of that.
Speaker: So hopefully that sounded cohesive because it wasn't a cohesive movie.
Speaker: And I tried my best.
Speaker: When all is said and done, same, same.
Speaker: Book and movie, like word for word, shot for shot.
Speaker: What did you, oh, well, I'm getting ahead of myself, but I am curious right now what you liked better before you fact.
Speaker: Oh my gosh.
Speaker: Before I fact, absolutely the book.
Speaker: Me too.
Speaker: There was... Journal aside.
Speaker: And I watched this movie first, unknowing about the book or anything, and still didn't like it.
Speaker: I mean, I was like, okay, fine, whatever.
Speaker: But now having read the book, I just can't believe they had such an adorable, sweet, funny character that is Ren and his mother and their gingerbread house.
Speaker: to go and fuck it up so badly was so shocking was there anything in your movie facts about i was so curious what you were gonna come out with because i was like who made this movie what's happening why is it the way it is i could not find anyone tell me anything about why they did this i was searching like love and gelato press love and gelato director interview love and gelato cast press they're in hiding
Speaker: okay so here's the thing it sounds like covid complicated things while they were like scheduling and shooting it so she like the author like never even got to visit the set so like maybe press and interviews just like weren't happening when it was being made and came out that's the only thing i can think of but the only explanation i got
Speaker: sure like why this is the way it is was like the author saying she was really hands-off obviously but no one explained to me why they changed it so much weird but one person on twitter said love and gelato's movie adaptation was the worst movie i've ever watched it really took i think most adaptations when they veer really hard from a book they usually pull out things that are
Speaker: really special and important to the book and keep those and i felt like this didn't do that so it was really hard to like find footing or like anything familiar yeah so different they did keep made it like more on unrecognizable for whatever reason well like we'll keep francesca but she's like you're gonna live with her and we'll she's gonna be like your mother figure
Speaker: Yeah, and like why it wasn't shot in Florence, I'm really confused.
Speaker: Why they kept the journal but then like had it serve no purpose was bizarre.
Speaker: It was a strange time.
Speaker: It was a strange time.
Speaker: I hated this movie.
Speaker: Reading anything that you're liking right now?
Speaker: I am reading Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute by Talia Hibbert.
Speaker: Is that a romance?
Speaker: It is a romance.
Speaker: Riley can see the cover.
Speaker: You guys can't, but it's pink.
Speaker: That's cute.
Speaker: It's a book Colton got me for Christmas, and it's very cute.
Speaker: It's written by a woman from the UK, and she does something that our good friend Beth Riekels does not do.
Speaker: So she starts this book by saying, like,
Speaker: I decided to make a lot of the plot in a forest camp, but I don't really like the forest that much, and I'm just here for the vibes.
Speaker: So sorry if anything's wrong.
Speaker: And I was like, you know what?
Speaker: I respect it, and I love you for it.
Speaker: Whereas Miss Beth gave us no warning that she was here for the vibes.
Speaker: About the college system?
Speaker: No idea about American schooling.
Speaker: That's very cute.
Speaker: I'm reading.
Speaker: I just finished and haven't picked up anything else.
Speaker: I'm reading.
Speaker: I was reading.
Speaker: Am I going to have to say that again?
Speaker: I can't get it out.
Speaker: I just finished reading a book by Lori Moore.
Speaker: called I am homeless if this is not my home I think is the title she's I've read her short stories before but this was the first time I've read her book and it was I feel like if I tried to explain any of it it would be very spoilery it would be like better to just go in blind but if anyone wants to read a double narrative of
Speaker: contemplating death of loved ones um with like a wacky road trip vibe very surreal very weird hard to explain but very memorable for sure i liked it i like the sound of that it sounds interesting um but i'm very excited for what we will be reading next for this podcast oh yes do you want to tell them or should i it feels like a big announcement
Speaker: I think you should, because I'm blanking.
Speaker: Oh my god, it's Twilight!
Speaker: Oh my god, yeah.
Speaker: Okay, I remember.
Speaker: Only the most exciting.
Speaker: It is the best book of all time.
Speaker: And the best movie of all time.
Speaker: So really, I'm going to battle it out for this one.
Speaker: I found the first three books in the series in a little free library, so it felt like fate and like we should do it next.
Speaker: Yeah, we absolutely have to.
Speaker: I know.
Speaker: We're going to be bringing back a blast from the past.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So read along if you've been looking for an excuse to.
Speaker: I know you have been.
Speaker: We all are waiting for someone to give us an excuse to reread Twilight, aren't we?
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: And if you haven't read it yet, like, where have you been?
Speaker: Join us.
Speaker: Please.
Speaker: You can follow along at, we'll be posting updates on our Instagram, which is at moviesbetteryeahright.
Speaker: That's at M-O-V-I-E-S-B-E-T-T-E-R-Y-A-W-R-I-T-E.
Speaker: And you can buy that and any other books that we mentioned on the show at our bookshop, which is bookshop.org slash shop slash moviesbetteryeahright.
Speaker: Spelled like I just spelled it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Rewind.
Speaker: Well, thank you for listening.
Speaker: Yeah, we hope you enjoyed this really crazy deep dive into love and gelato.
Speaker: Oh my gosh, yeah.
Speaker: I think that's kind of been our craziest one yet.
Speaker: Please, if you haven't watched or read, take this as a sign to just try it out.
Speaker: Good luck.
Speaker: We'll see you next week to take a hard, sharp turn into vampires.
Speaker: Oh my gosh.
Speaker: We'll see you then.
Speaker: Team Jacob forever.
Speaker: Bye, guys.
