Genre: Romantic Comedy | Road Movie | Feel-Good Romance
Only You is a charming, sun-drenched romantic comedy that feels like a daydream spun across the cobblestone streets of Italy. Directed by Norman Jewison, this 1994 film is a nostalgic throwback to an era of rom-coms full of sweeping gestures, grand coincidences, and the belief that destiny—if you chase it hard enough—will reward the true romantic.
Marisa Tomei stars as Faith Corvatch, a woman whose life has been shaped by one name. As a teenager, a Ouija board and a fortune teller both told her that her true love’s name is Damon Bradley. Years later, days before her wedding to a perfectly decent podiatrist, she receives a phone call for her fiancé’s old friend—named Damon Bradley—who happens to be on his way to Venice. On a whim and a wish, Faith dashes off to Italy with her sister-in-law (Bonnie Hunt), determined to find the stranger fate promised her.
What follows is a fairy tale road trip through Rome, Venice, and the Amalfi Coast. There are chance encounters, mistaken identities, and yes, the inevitable twist: Faith does meet a man claiming to be Damon Bradley—played with suave charm by Robert Downey Jr.—but is he really who she’s been waiting for, or is destiny a little more complicated than a name on a board?
Tomei glows as Faith, blending sweetness with stubborn determination, while Downey Jr. brings just the right mix of boyish mischief and sincere longing. The Italian scenery is as much a star as the leads—cafés on piazzas, sunsets over the canals, winding coastal roads that seem made for impulsive romance.
Only You is a movie that doesn’t worry too much about realism—its magic lies in the fantasy that somewhere out there is a love that’s written in the stars. It’s about letting yourself believe, even for a little while, that the universe has a plan, and sometimes all you need is the courage to run after it.
It’s light, warm, and impossibly charming—a love letter to fate, to serendipity, and to Italy itself. If you’re in the mood for a film that makes you believe in grand romantic gestures and the idea that a name whispered years ago can change your life forever, Only You is exactly that dreamy escape.
