Puccini for Beginners

Puccini For Beginners is about Allegra. Allegra has just broken up with her girlfriend Samantha. After this breakup, she bonds with Phillip over their love of opera. Despite Allegra identifying as a lesbian, she and Phillip begin a relationship. Following this, Allegra also meets Grace, a straight woman. Allegra also begins a relationship with Grace. Most of the movie follows Allegra struggling with the classic “dating two people at the same time problem”. This becomes extra complicated when she learns that the two people she is dating also used to date.

One of my least favourite things is when movies fail to live up to the adjectives set by their genres. In this case, Puccini for Beginners is a romantic comedy that is neither romantic nor very funny. The “wacky hijinks” and the fact that all of the characters are pretty unlikable separately or in any given combination make the romance aspect fall flat. Additionally, the movie never does really want us to root for either of the key relationships long-term. For all the potential for sexual fluidity, Puccini for Beginners isn’t brave enough to set up a lesbian with a man or to permanently “turn” a straight woman. Spoiler alert, but Allegra doesn’t end up with Phillip or Grace at the end. So the romances the movie primarily follows don’t lead anywhere.

The comedy likewise falls flat. The jokes are too predictable. It feels like in order to counteract the whole fluid sexuality angle, the rest of the movie plays it too safe. This is not a movie made for a primarily a queer audience. Puccini for Beginners is made for a heterosexual audience over 30 who is used to a certain formula for their rom-coms. And that’s what Puccini for Beginners is going to give them. It feels like Puccini used up all its edginess in its premise so the jokes and really, everything else become so standard and inoffensive. This is a movie that’s meant to feel comfortably familiar. Unfortunately, that’s not a feeling that lends itself well to comedy.

I do like the casual way this movie presents sexual fluidity. Puccini for Beginners only brings up the fact that two characters are going outside their sexuality comfort zone as much as they need to. This easily could have been a case where the whole movie is about a sexual identity crisis. But to its credit, that’s not what Puccini for Beginners wanted to do. So that’s good. It also briefly brings up some issues of biphobia within the lesbian community though it was brief and pretty light. Whatever, I’ll take it. For a movie that’s primary sin is being boring and cliche, its depiction of sexuality avoids most of the major pitfalls lots of other movies fall into.

But despite a refreshing take on sexuality in the rom-com genre, Puccini for Beginners remains neither romantic nor particularly comedic. What then are we left with? Nothing, basically. Puccini for Beginners is bad but not notably bad. It’s not interesting enough for that. It’s just another failed romantic comedy. How bland.

Overall rating: 4.6/10

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