Italian Netflix film “The Love Scam”, which was released at the beginning of this year, is predictable to the core to say the least. Right from when its two main characters come across each other, you will quickly guess the rest of the story within a few seconds, and there is really not much surprise for you on the whole, but you may go along with its mostly watchable romantic comedy as long as you can forgive a lot of plot contrivance in the story.

 The movie, which is incidentally set in Napoli, Italy, begins with a comic premise driven by desperation. Vito (Antonio Folletto) is an earnest young man trying to support himself and his baby son after his son’s mother ran away some time ago, but, alas, he remains unemployed despite his sincere efforts, and that certainly does not look good at all to the social workers checking on him and his baby. 

And then things get all the worse for Vito and his young son thanks to his older brother Antonello (Vincenzo Nemolato), who has not been much of help as your average small-time crook. Antonello recently got himself involved with a serious financial matter, and Vito belatedly comes to learn that their apartment will be soon taken away by some company unless he pays a considerable amount of money within a very short time.

In the end, Vito and Antonello decide to visit that company in question, which turns out to be a prominent architecture company ready to demolish their old apartment building for building a hotel there. Because the owner of the company happens to be absent, they try to meet the owner’s daughter instead, but then they soon see how hard and difficult Marina (Laura Adriani) can be as often being quite focused on her company work.

After discovering that Marina actually has a soft spot for public charity, they quickly embark on planning their little scam. Although he is understandably quite reluctant at first, Vito certainly does not want to lose the custody of his young son, so he eventually agrees to disguise himself as someone who is supposed to be passionate about public charity as much as Marina.      

What follows next is a series of comic moments where Vito and Marina get drawn more to each other after their orchestrated Meet Cute moment. Although their first encounter is not so pleasant for both of them, Marina is initially quite annoyed as he keeps appearing around her, but, what do you know, she and Vito soon come to spend more time with each other. When Vito later lets her follow her personal passion toward cooking, she cannot help but feel happy and delighted, and she even agrees to work as the chef for his little charity meeting. 

Of course, Vito naturally feels more conflicted as, this is not a spoiler at all, he also falls in love just like Marina. What he and his older brother are doing to her is inarguably a cruel scam, and he knows that too well, but he keeps maintaining his fake identity anyway as he and his older brother are almost close to succeeding in their dirty scam.    

I must point out that this is rather uncomfortable to watch at times, but the movie keeps everything light and cheerful before the last act where the inevitable outcome of Vito and Antonello’s scheme is unfolded as expected. Yes, there is naturally an obligatory moment of heartbreak and disappointment. Yes, there is a mandatory sequence showing a bit of passage of time accompanied with background music. Yes, there is also a necessary moment when our two main characters realize that they still care a lot about each other.

Around that point, the story becomes more contrived with a certain supporting character functioning as a villain to be opposed by both Marina and Vito, and that is where the movie stumbles more than before. The new conflict during its last act is resolved too conveniently within a short time, and that is why the eventual happy ending feels rather artificial instead of being a real feel-good moment to embrace.

Anyway, the movie is supported mostly well by the engaging presence of its two lead performers, who instantly generate good comic chemistry between them during many of their key scenes in the film. Antonio Folletto makes his character sincere and likable even when his character manipulates or deceives Marina, and Laura Adriani is an effective counterpoint to her co-star. Her high-strung character surely feels unlikable at first, but Adriani gradually makes us care more about her as her character shows more heart and soul along the story, and we can clearly sense how much Vito is touched by that.

Around Folletto and Adriani, most of the other main cast members of the film simply fill their respective spots except Vincenzo Nemolato, who has some scenes to steal as Vito’s trouble-making older brother. He and Biagio Manna, who plays Antonello’s criminal associate, provide some goofiness to the story as demanded, and there is an amusing moment when their characters hurriedly disguise a bunch of local people as the wealthy people to attend Vito’s fake charity meeting.

Overall, “The Love Scam”, directed by Umberto Riccioni Carteni, is not a very satisfying genre product without anything new or fresh in terms of story and character, but it is not a total waste of time mainly thanks to the good comic efforts from its two lead performers who deserve better in my inconsequential opinion. Yes, there are many better romantic comedy films out there, but I will not stop you from watching this mildly pleasant Netflix product if you just simply kill your spare time.