From director Norman Jewison (In the Heat of the Night, The Thomas Crown Affair, Fiddler on the Roof, Moonstruck), I spotted this pretty much out of nowhere and noticed the two leading stars, so I just to give it a try. Basically when she was a child Faith Corvatch (Marisa Tomei) used a Ouija Board that spelled out, in individual letters, the name "Damon Bradley", and this is supposedly the name of her soul mate. Now grown up she goes to a carnival and has a fortune teller using her Crystal Ball sees this name as well as the man she will marry, and then, on the verge of getting married, she overhears a phone call from her future husband's friend, it is Damon Bradley calling from Venice, Italy. Faith is determined to track him down, so she and her sister in law Kate (Jumanji's Bonnie Hunt) travel from New York to the Italian countryside and streets of Rome in search of the man they only know by name. They are following his trail with any information people can give from his last known whereabouts, but they seem to keep missing him by small amounts of time, even once by seconds and inches. Then Faith meets a young American man (Robert Downey Jr.), but has no interest in him until he hears the name and identifies himself as Damon Bradley, and after a spending a night together they have both fallen hopelessly in love. It only falls apart when he confesses that he is not Damon Bradley, his real name is Peter Wright, and she angrily walks out wanting to go home, but Kate finding attraction for her from Giovanni (Joaquim De Almeida) the Italian businessman might make that difficult. Peter comes back to her though and says that he has been looking for a Damon Bradley, and found out he has apparently moved to Positano, so Giovanni drives Peter, Faith and Kate there to find her at a posh hotel. Then they find this "Damon Bradley" (Billy Zane), a playboy with long hair and many women lapping him up, and confident she should try and see how things go she invites him to go. Of course it turns out this "Damon" is actually Peter's friend Harry and the whole thing was staged, and meanwhile Kate's husband Larry (Fisher Stevens) has travelled to find them and make up with his wife, but they planned to come home now anyway. Larry reveals to Faith that when he did the Ouiji board as a child and spelled the name out, it was all a prank, and he paid the fortune teller too, he didn't tell her because he was worried she would never talk to him again. Getting to the airport Peter is there to see off Faith, and they both overhear a real Damon Bradley (Adam LeFevre) at the information desk, so they can truly meet him, he is a reasonably good looking man, Peter explains the whole situation to him and he is perplexed, and of course he mentions being in love with her. In the end this Damon asks Faith if she loves Peter, and that if she truly does then she should embrace it, and she manages to catch him on his plane to Boston in time, and they kiss, with all the other passengers applauding, and they fly off into the sunset. Also starring John Benjamin Hickey as Dwayne and Men in Black's Siobhan Fallon as Leslie. Tomei is obviously attractive and she is also charming as the woman searching for the supposed man she has a destiny with, and Downey Jr. is likable as the man she actually should be with, their scenes together are great, and the supporting cast, including sleazy Zane works well too, I can see what the critics mean by a Cinderella style story, it certainly has that quality, and it makes you laugh in the right places, a good fun romantic comedy. Very good!

"Only You" is an immodest, sweet confection, a romantic comedy from one end to the other that doesn't have much meat on it but is the kind of movie that you cozy up with with cup of hot chocolate. It is slightly better than I might have expected and that's probably due to the talent involved.The movie stars Marisa Tomei, probably the only actress who could have made this material believable. She has the effect of being cute without being cutesy. She plays the appropriately named Faith who, since childhood, has believed that her entire destiny is leading her to be with a man named Damon Bradley. She is told by a fortune teller at the age of 11 that she and Bradley are destined to be together. She has no idea who this man is, but stands hard and fast to the information that their bond is written in the stars.Years later, now in her 20s, she has given up on Damon Bradley and is about to marry a podiatrist. On her wedding day, she receives a phone call from a friend of her husband-to-be saying that he cannot attend. His name . . . Damon Bradley, and he's on his way to Rome. Without a second thought, Faith and her sister-in-law Kate (played by the invaluable Bonnie Hunt) jump on a plane and go after him.Faith and Kate run around Venice like maniacs trying to track down Damon Bradley and when they find him, he turns out to be exactly what Faith had hoped he would be. He is handsome, dark-haired, charming and looks exactly like Robert Downey Jr. Who wouldn't swoon? The two embark on a sweet tour of Rome, very much in the same vein that Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck did in Roman Holiday. In fact, one of their stops is Pavonazzetto marble monument of The Mouth of Truth which was most famously seen in that 1953 classic.Yet, it wouldn't be romantic comedy if they simply fell in love. A complication arises with the validity of whether or not Downey actually is Damon Bradley. That sets the whole movie off on a wacky romp through the countryside as he tries to prove to her that he really is in love with her, despite the validity of his claim.This is all not to be believed. Only You is the kind of happy romantic comedy of a bygone era, before cynicism became an insurance policy. This is a movie that believes in destiny and fate and love at first sight and it is played through a cast of actors who are smart enough and convincing enough to pull it off. What distinguishes this movie above most is that it is always just a notch better than it should be.Marisa Tomei and Robert Downey Jr. are beautiful people but they are such good actors that they are able to sell this story with a convincing charm. Tomei, with her wide-eyes, and pouty lips is able to push through this confection and make you believe that she really does believe everything that she is saying. Downey too is excellent, giving us a character who wears his heart on his sleeve. He loves this woman and he is willing to do what it takes to be with her. They're good together, even when the script tips in the direction of being too unbelievable for its own good.Both Downey and Tomei are wonderful, but for my money, the real gem of this movie is the supporting performance of Bonnie Hunt, as Faith's eternally-loyal sister-in-law. She always stands just to the side of Tomei and brings the movie an unexpected, and very funny, extra joy. Her comic timing is flawless. She has a manner of giving us funny asides that are delivered with just the right precision like: "I married a liar. Why? Because I married a man." I love that line and her comment when she and Faith are dismayed by an awful wedding dress that had been handed down, she says "If I had a dress like that, I'd give it away too."Kate has her own problems back home with an uncaring husband (Fisher Stevens) how has long ago abandoned love for a union that doesn't stretch beyond "Where's dinner?" She's a portrait of what happens to a marriage long after the ceremony when two people have settled into a relentless pattern of misunderstanding. Yet, what comes of their relationship completely took me by surprise."Only You" was directed by Norman Jewison, the man who directed "Fiddler on the Roof", "In the Heat of the Night" and the one of the best romantic comedies of all time "Moonstruck". He doesn't succeed as well this time. This movie often feels like a nice day off, something he made as a lark. The movie is like cotton candy, all about romance and love and destiny shot against the background of one of the most beautiful locations on earth. There's nothing really wrong with that, it is probably better than it should be, given the creative talents but it won't leave you with much to think about.

I first caught this movie late one night on TV. I fell in love with the characters and the beautiful Italian setting immediately! Marisa Tomei is on fine form as the beautiful Faith, convinced that everyone has a soulmate and that destiny will bring them together in the end. Bonnie Hunt plays a wonderful supporting role as her sister-in-law Kate, who stands by her friend and follows her to Italy when Faith becomes obsessed with finding her "true soulmate", Damon Bradley, after receiving a call from him in which he told her he would not be able to attend her upcoming wedding to her fiancée. A young Faith had been told by both an Ouija Board and a fortune teller that "Damon Bradley" was her soulmate. When searching for Damon in Italy, Faith (literally) bumps into Peter Wright (Downey Jr) a shoe salesman, who becomes instantly enamored by Faith and tells her that he is Damon. They spend a wonderfully romantic evening together, before he confesses that he is not who he claimed to be. She is disgusted, and immediately goes back to her search for Damon. The rest of the film involves Faith on a mission to find Damon Bradley with Kate and Peter's help, and takes them all on a journey they never expected. This is a gorgeous, romantic little movie and well worth a look. I can't recommend it enough.

I was about to write this comment and I came across a comment by Amy Adler from Toledo. She wrote pretty much what I wanted to write, so now I will have to rephrase.Giving a movie 10 rating reflects impractical thinking, in some people's opinion. I say, when your heart is full, 10 seems to be too low! Sometimes you feel so overwhelmed, you think, Gee, why can I not give 11 in 10? It happened to me when I watched the ending of A Very Long Engagement. And it happened when I watched Only You.It is not necessary to be in love with Italy to appreciate this film. But it is essential to get 100% of the taste that Norman Jewison and the whole crew worked so hard to offer. Robert Downey Jr. is Hollywood's lost cause. Usually, in a film, when he appears on a scene, story stops and frustration is imparted. But here, to my utmost astonishment, he is all that the hero of a romantic film ever needs to be! Marisa Tomei, probably unknowingly, outmatches herself and delivers the most charming role of her life. I am not saying it's the most masterful. I am not saying it's the most complicated. But charming, oh yes it is! Oh yes it is! At some points of time, when you feel all one with this film, you feel like you can breathe in the air with countless love pollens in it, drive through the long old roads with a view of the ocean, the ocean wind blowing your hair and nourishing your senses under the golden sun and making you believe, anything is possible in a place like this.This film has very simple elements that get into your veins and stay with you for the rest of your life. A lot of people worked so hard to make dead complicated plots and acting scopes. But I remembered none of those like I remember "Only You". If you have never loved, never felt silly and thought you could give away your everything, never felt sad and wished you could just melt away with the sweet earth, or if you have forgotten how those feelings were because you felt them so long ago, then probably you might find "Only You" not worth losing sleep over. But for a true romantique, this is all there is, this is all there can be.A pure delight for the senses. A life altering experience to me. I have watched it a hundred times over. Still every scene is brand new.