You, Me, Us Review: ★★★½☆ (3.5/5)
You, Me, Us has a bold idea, a great pair of leads, and a director who knows family drama. The big question is whether the film can keep its balance between laughs and real feeling.
Rating: ★★★½☆ (3.5/5)
Genre: Romantic Comedy
Language: Italian
Director: Daniele Luchetti
Cast: Elio Germano, Maria Chiara Giannetta, Ilaria Spada, Filippo Nigro, Anna Bonaiuto
Most romantic comedies end with two people choosing each other. You, Me, Us starts with two people who cannot agree on the biggest choice of their lives. The Italian film arrives on Netflix on 29 October 2026, and its setup is better than most.
Simone, played by Elio Germano, likes order and wants a family. Lucia, played by Maria Chiara Giannetta, hates rules and has always said no to motherhood. On paper, they should not work. Yet the film does not break them up. It sends them to adopt a child instead.
That one choice makes the story smarter than it first looks. When a couple disagrees about kids, a pregnancy can settle the argument by itself. Adoption cannot. Two people have to decide together, say it out loud, and keep deciding. The disagreement can no longer hide inside the relationship. The Italian title, Noi un po’ meglio, means roughly “us, a little better,” and that is the real promise. This is not about a perfect couple. It is about two people trying to become good enough to be trusted with a child.
The film also plays with who carries the usual side of the argument. Here the man wants the family, and the woman refuses it. Romantic comedies rarely let the woman be the one who says no, and they almost never treat her as the lead. Choosing not to have children is now a position people state openly, and Italy has one of the lowest birth rates in Europe, so the question feels current and not just cute.
Director Daniele Luchetti knows this ground well. This is his fifth film with Germano, and their earlier work together includes Mio fratello è figlio unico and La nostra vita, which earned Germano a shared best actor prize at Cannes. Across those films Luchetti has kept watching men under pressure at home. This time he does it with jokes, and the shift is welcome.
Giannetta is the fresh face here. Italian viewers know her from Rai prime time, where she played the carabinieri captain in Don Matteo and later led Blanca. Putting a performer with a family audience in the role of a woman who refuses motherhood is a clever choice. The film is also surrounded by solid names, including Ilaria Spada, Filippo Nigro and Anna Bonaiuto. Andrea Laszlo De Simone, whose score for The Animal Kingdom won a César, wrote the music.
There is a small risk. The film is described as a nonstop negotiation about everything, and that can wear thin if the jokes repeat. Couples who argue endlessly are an old Italian comedy habit. What lifts this one is that someone outside the relationship will eventually judge whether these two are ready. That gives the laughs something real to push against.
The film played out of competition at the Festa del Cinema di Roma before reaching Netflix, and it is Luchetti’s first project for the platform. Netflix has not shared a runtime yet.
If you enjoy stories with a darker pull, our Balaraw: Blood Island Review looks at a Filipino vampire mystery with a big heart. For another love story built on a lie, read about the Drive: The Pretenders release date on Prime Video, where a fake engagement meets a racing scandal. And if family drama is your thing, our The Gift of Deceit review covers a toxic mother and daughter story.
You, Me, Us asks whether “a little better” is enough. For a Friday night on Netflix, it just might be.
You, Me, Us is streaming on Netflix from 29 October 2026.