This is really a delightful little movie - funny, sad, quirky and never predictable. It boasts a story line which places it nominally in the teen romance category but contains so many original elements that it is never derivative. Congratulations to the script writer who tells a story that surprises at every turn. Kudos to a great cast, none of whom I have seen before, who all play their roles perfectly especially the actors playing the nutty parents and the young man who plays the protagonist, Emile. This young actor brings such a sweetness and vulnerability to the role that you are drawn into the movie, just hoping that everything turns out alright for him. I can't remember any movie I have watched recently that combines humor with so many warm hearted moments as well as this movie does. Sure, it's not a heavy, deep or consequential movie; I don't imagine it was a comedy blockbuster in it's native country, but it is a breath of fresh air - light, sweet, funny and always enjoyable. I happily recommend it.

"Venise n'est pas en Italie " is very uneven : the first part is full of clichés ,from the mom always swearing by organic food to the big brother who joined the army and wants to take away his sibling 's innocence, a scene the coarse comedies have already done a thousand times .

The screenplays is full of plot holes :for instance , in Venice, where he has never been before, the fifteen-year -old boy finds the right places pronto.An intrusive music does not help ,except for one sequence .(see below)

Things go a little better (it could not get worse) in the second half where there's really a potential,as a precedent user pointed out: the smug snob conductor and his despising attitude when the boy comes to call on his daughter , a musician, that her self-important dad always puts down should have been exploited earlier ;the scene of the ball is moving without being soppy ,with an adequate score.Too bad the social conventions are only skimmed over: the trailer where the boy's family lives and Pauline's luxury house ; the boy's humiliation when he 's got to bring a carrot cake and the fact that he makes his parents pass off as his cousins!Too many missed opportunities.

A beautiful, simple and easy-to-understand film for families with younger teenagers. It's about the first big love of a nerd who shyly and reservedly discovers the world. A simple story, not particularly difficult to understand and very entertaining. An alternative to American cinema.