Three people are jogging, a girl bookended by a man and a woman. They are apparently stalking a hot guy, who catches on and asks the girl what she wants. "Dinner," she says.
The movie is Out of My League (Sul più bello, 2020). If it is a classic romcom, the jogging companion will be the girl's gay best friend. I'll watch to see how much he swishes.
Scene 1: A little boy leads a girl to the altar for a pretend wedding. When she discovers that her groom is Zac Efron, she rebels: she married him last week! She sorts through a trunk containing dozens of groom faces drawn on paper plates to find the right one: David Beckham.
Switch to 11 years later, and the girl, Marta, is still driving around Turin with a mannekin of her pretend-husband. Don't get excited, this is the only time we will see the city.
She notes that many girls who are plain as children turn into beauties, but she has remained "a caterpillar," so her chances of finding an actual man are nil. But she has her friends: the swishy fashionista Jacobo (Jozef Gjura) and the butch math prodigy Federica (who came out to her horrified parents at age 11). Neither fashion nor math will be important later.
A romcom heroine with two gay friends? That's a first.
More back story: her parents died when she was three, car crash (it's always a car crash. Don't people die of anything else?). She has a rare genetic disorder, mucoviscidosis, which requires her to use a nebulizer, do physiotherapy, and avoid damp places, but will eventually kill her.
A dying girl gets a boyfriend? Isn't that the plot of Love Story, My Girl and Bridge to Terabithia? I guess those were from the point of view of the boy, who has the problem of being in love with a dying girl. This is the flip side, but I still don't want to watch. I'll just go through on fast-forward, to see if Jacobo and Federica do anything besides support Marta as she cruises and dies.
At minute 14, Marta stumbles into the bedroom to find Jacobo and Federica having sex. Wait --- what? They explain that they are trying to have a baby together.
Gay men having sex with lesbians? But I guess no one actually identifies him as gay, just swishy. He had a boyfriend at age 11, but apparently no one, male or female, since.
Later the two have a discussion about the baby: "What if we meet someone and don't live together anymore? Who will the baby live with?"
Otherwise its Marta, Marta, Marta, as she rejects the boy-next-door and pursues (and wins) the hot, athletic, super-wealthy Arturo (Giuseppe Maggio, top photo). He dumps his supermodel girlfriend for her.
I guess he wants to congratulate himself on performing a noble act, fulfilling a dying girl's last wish (to get laid?). Not to worry, in a few days he can go back to supermodels.
Beefcake: A little of Jacobo and Arturo.
Other Sights: No.
Gay Characters: Federica and Jacobo, I suppose, but they never diplay any same-sex romantic or erotic interests. They are only into each other.
Dying Girl: Yes.
My Grade: You don't want to know.
source http://everydayheterosexism.blogspot.com/2021/08/out-of-my-league-italian-romcom-with.html