Scott Lee makes his feature acting debut in the sweet Wanderlust rom-com as a cheesy tour guide who surprisingly makes his own way.
Rachael Leigh Cook has finished everything: She became a teen breakout star in the classic high school comedy “She’s All That,” made the switch to sponsored films (“Spirit Halloween,” “Tis the Season to Be”), and was the Hallmark Christmas Queen (“Leaped for joy”). In the charming Netflix original film “A Tourist’s Guide to Love,” he now skillfully discusses the possibilities of each of his women.
Indeed, “made-for-Netflix” is a distinct category. While “The Irishman” is a Netflix Original, “Made-for-Netflix” distinguishes commercial productions like “Falling for Christmas” and “Murder Mystery 2” from the real Oscars. Doing. Contender. Under the streaming giant’s programming umbrella, there is a sliding spectrum of quality, and Cook’s most recent movie, “A Tourist’s Guide to Love,” seems like the greatest possible adaptation of a wonderfully popular booktalk romance novel.
Cook portrays Amanda, a wounded Los Angeles professional woman who is tasked with going undercover in Vietnam to determine whether the tour operator she hires is a good investment. Amanda learns some bad news just before departing on her ideal vacation: her dependable and sensible boyfriend (BEN FELDMAN) puts their relationship on “hiatus” since he moves to Ohio. worse? He doesn’t propose to Amanda as she anticipated in her carefully thought-out, idealised scenario.
Amanda’s strict adherence to the rules quickly crumbles in the presence of the seductive Vietnamese tour guide Singh (Scott Lee), much like her meticulously packed luggage that disappeared at the airport. While it seems foreseeable, the other plot points of the movie follow their own paths. “A Tourist’s Guide to Love” had the option of choosing an Americanized, voyeuristic tone or casting Singh’s character as a local pining after Amanda’s sensibility while teaching him to let go of himself in order to capture the lushness of Vietnam.
Fortunately, “A Tourist’s Guide to Love” is more intelligent and refined than that.
Instead of following Vietnamese culture, Amanda engages in some “eat, pray, love” activities while on her trip—an endeavour already doomed by her unclear motive for taking the trip, which may involve purchasing Singh’s family business. It is Singh’s enthusiasm and passion for it, not merely the characters’ developing romance, that gives the movie its foundation. “A Tourist’s Guide to Love” is a how-to manual for having romantic adventures overseas, sprinkled with practical Vietnamese advice and spiritual insights.
“A Tourist’s Guide to Love”
Sasidis Sasiskulporn/Netflix
The Netflix film marks the feature film debut of director Steven K. Suchida (“Younger,” “Cobra Kai”), not the kind of CNN travel programme similar to Anthony Bourdain’s “Parts Unknown” filming Vietnam’s delectable cuisine. Shy A night market scene is utilised by Singh to teach Amanda how to bargain effectively, while she is discreetly passing knowledge like buying a symbolic Phoenix Rising scarf if the seller does not decrease the price. This is one example of how the rom-com walks a fine line between cultural traditions. It simply did not occur.
The traffic advice for jets across the street is “always forward, never backward,” for example. Nonetheless, Singh’s instincts translate well and Amanda is helped by him as he navigates the local norms. teaches lessons about life. In contrast to what Singh warns, their journey and upcoming romance is about letting the spontaneity of a life-changing adventure happen naturally rather than treating it like a tourist attraction or a checklist of relationship milestones to be crossed off.
In her “small corner of the earth,” Amanda came to the realisation that she was too at ease and thus too complacent. Even though it’s a “made-for-Netflix” rom-com, it has a message that more streamers need to hear.
For Muse Entertainment, Cook and Joel S. Rice produced the film; Erin Tran Donohue wrote the script. The first international production to film in Vietnam following the outbreak is “A Tourist’s Guide to Love,” the first American movie to be nearly totally shot there. The winning picture makes the case for more films to be set in Vietnam, hopefully expanding Netflix’s international production presence as it moves beyond Cook’s Hallmark Channel rom-com roots to roles (and parts!) far beyond those.
