I Really Enjoyed Netflix's La Dolce Villa, And There's Something Cool About The Lead Female Character We Don't Usually See

The 2025 movie schedule has delivered so far, and when it comes to originals you can watch with your Netflix subscription, the streamer had a hit with its just-in-time-for-Valentine’s-Day romantic comedy, La Dolce Villa. The story is sparked by a concerned father, Eric (Scott Foley), heading to Italy in an attempt to stop his daughter (who’s grown but still very young) from what he believes is a mistake by buying a one euro home to fix up, prompting his love connection with the town’s female mayor (Violante Placido). And, the narrative blissfully does something really cool with that female lead that we don’t often see.

I Think La Dolce Villa Is One Of The Best Netflix Original Rom-Coms

While we’ve gotten all types of movies when it comes to Netflix originals over the years, something that the streamer has specialized in is giving fans of the best romantic comedies even more entries in that genre. It was as I watched the 2025 Netflix release, La Dolce Villa that I realized it was among the best of those offerings that I’d seen.

Not only are the characters and their motivations easy to get behind, with wonderful performances from everyone involved, but the story also manages to avoid some really tired tropes. These include things like Francesca (that’s the mayor), not being comically rom-com clumsy for no good reason, and Eric’s daughter, Olivia (Maia Reficco), actually not being a huge brat. Honestly, I loved it all!

And I Especially Love That The Lead Female Character Has No Storyline That Involves Children

I have nothing against kids, but the truth is that not all people have them, whatever their reasons for that. But, frequently, while a male lead character of a certain age can be childless without it being part of his story, that tends to not be the case with female characters. And, La Dolce Villa completely avoids this by having Francesca not be a parent and having no story about why she doesn’t have kids at all.

In general, it’s far too common for films (and TV shows, for that matter) to at least explain why a woman in her middle years is childless, as if the audience must need a reason for such a thing so that we can fully accept, understand, and even like the character.

This tends to lead to things like brief mentions of the female lead and some previous partner attempting to have kids but it not working out, or of her workaholic lifestyle leading to her being too busy for something like raising children. However, here, Francesca has no kids and there’s no mention of why she doesn’t. This might not seem revolutionary, but it really is.

Just like men, women are free (currently anyway) to not have kids if they don’t want to have kids. And, no one should need to have a reason/explanation/sad story about why any woman made that decision to be OK with it, because, you know, it’s not really anyone else’s business or choice anyway.

La Dolce Villa is enjoyable for many reasons, and I’m sure that the writers (Elizabeth Hackett and Hilary Galanoy) having the forethought to not make Fancesca’s story even remotely about why she doesn’t have children will mean a lot to many ladies. There are those of us who are tired of the idea that lead female characters must either have or want to have kids, or have part of their narrative be about why they don’t.