Ever since I can remember, I’ve had an obsession with Sandra Bullock’s movies: 2 Weeks Notice, Miss Congeniality, The Proposal, Ocean’s 8. I’ve seen every single one, probably more times than I’d like to admit to anyone. But out of all of her movies, there’s always been one that has stood out to me: While You Were Sleeping (1995). There’s something undeniably heartwarming about the movie– its cozy atmosphere and family dynamics bring me back to it repeatedly. So, when I watched You, Me & Tuscany (2026), I couldn’t help but notice the similarities between the two.
The 2026 Romantic Comedy starring The Little Mermaid’s Halle Bailey and Bridgerton’s Regé-Jean Page follows Anna, an aspiring chef who impulsively finds herself staying at Matteo’s Italian villa after a chance encounter with him. When Matteo’s family discovers her there, Anna panics and lets them believe that she is his fiancée. Her lie, however, becomes even more complicated when she meets Matteo’s cousin and starts falling for him.
Does this sound familiar? If you have seen the rom-com classic While You Were Sleeping anywhere near as much as I have, then it definitely should.
In While You Were Sleeping, Lucy, played by my beloved Sandra Bullock, is mistaken for the fiancée of Peter, her longtime crush, after saving him from being run over by an oncoming train. As a result, Peter’s family welcomes her into their lives while he’s stuck in a coma. As Lucy’s bond with Peter’s family develops, she begins to fall for his brother, Jack.
Obviously, You, Me & Tuscany isn’t a copy, or even a remake, of While You Were Sleeping, as the movies feature completely different settings and characters. Still, the influence of While You Were Sleeping is hard to miss. Both movies feature a woman who is welcomed into a family under false pretenses, becomes emotionally attached to that family, and then unexpectedly falls in love with another man in the family. For me, though, the two biggest similarities are the idea that while romance matters, it’s just as important to find a community that feels like home.
What I love most about While You Were Sleeping is that Lucy falls in love with the entire Callaghan family before her attraction to Peter’s brother, Jack, is even implied. Lucy is a lonely woman who recently lost her father following her mother’s death as a child. Being welcomed into this loud, chaotic family gives her a newfound sense of belonging. I was elated to recognize a bit of Lucy Moderatz in Anna, another lonely woman who lost her mother. Like Lucy, Anna finds a home in Tuscany among the Costa family, who welcome her with open arms.
The romance between the romantic leads in both movies is another place where I couldn’t help but see the traces of While You Were Sleeping in You, Me, & Tuscany. The 1995 movie starts with Lucy believing that Peter is the man she wants, despite not truly knowing him. It isn’t until she’s welcomed into his family and grows closer to Jack that she realizes her feelings for Peter were only based on a romanticized fantasy of him, and that Jack is the one she can really envision herself with. Similarly, Anna’s brief encounter with Matteo is what gets her involved with the Costa family, but his cousin Michael is who she falls in love with over the course of the movie. In classic rom-com fashion, the person both main characters end up with is unexpected, as neither goes out looking for the person they ultimately fall in love with.
While You, Me, & Tuscany is definitely its own movie, with its gorgeous Italy setting that directly contrasts with While You Were Sleeping’s status as an unofficial Christmas movie, there are pieces of Lucy’s story that are clearly reflected in Anna’s. It was fun to recognize the familiar pieces of a story I already love while watching them play out somewhere completely new. Ultimately, what makes these two films so special to me is the way they remind us that love can sometimes be found in the most unlikely of places.