I Don’t Understand You (2024) is a darkly comic horror that walks a razor’s edge between absurdity and tragedy, weaving cultural miscommunication, queer anxieties, and travel misadventures into one dizzying, unpredictable journey. The film follows Dom and Cole, an American gay couple celebrating their anniversary in Italy while anxiously awaiting news about their adoption application. What begins as a dreamy romantic getaway quickly devolves into a spiral of discomfort, paranoia, and barely contained chaos.
Unease creeps in gradually—a strange drop of blood on their flight, Dom’s growing fixation on pickpockets, and the nagging feeling that something is always just a little off. As the mishaps pile up, the film delves into the cracks forming in their relationship, exposing how they each navigate stress, uncertainty, and the looming question of parenthood. Their Italian sojourn transforms into an unwitting trial of love, resilience, and readiness for the next chapter, all set against a backdrop that constantly shifts between laughter and dread.
This article contains spoilers.
I Don’t Understand You (2024) Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis:
The film opens with a gay couple, Dom and Cole, making a video to send to a prospective baby mom, Candace, sharing the reasons why she should pick them to adopt her unborn child. After some failed attempts, Dom and Cole express how much they love the child by imbuing them with qualities of love and kindness while also being silly and fun. After sending the video, Dom and Cole plan a trip to Italy, as it will be their anniversary soon. While Cole is flimsy, Dom is organized. He has planned the trip to the T. On the flight, Dom is excited to share that they will be dining in one of the top 50 best restaurants in the world. It’s a vegetarian restaurant since Cole is a vegetarian. As Dom and Cole are about to kiss, a drop of blood from above falls on Cole’s shirt.
What news do Dom and Cole get in Italy?
Turns out someone had brought raw meat, and the juice from it fell on Cole. In Italy, Dom obsesses over the little things, ensuring Cole has his wallet in place, as Dom is afraid of muggers. The couple is restless. They want to have a video call with Candace to confirm her pregnancy, as they have been scammed before. To help Dom and Cole feel at ease in Italy, Dom’s father’s friend Daniele helps them settle down. During lunch, Daniele gifts Dom and Cole pocket knives with personal inscriptions. Unfortunately, Cole’s inscription says cool instead of Cole. The couple now shares with Daniele and family that previously, a woman forged medical records, and it was a big ordeal.
After lunch, Daniele mixes up Dom’s anniversary schedule by making a reservation at Zia Luciana’s restaurant. The next day, Daniele rents a car for the couple as they leave the city for their anniversary. Before parting, Daniele asks the couple to be careful, which throws them off. At the hotel, the receptionist is embarrassed as he thinks Dom and Cole are colleagues and takes off the decorations made for a couple in the honeymoon suite.
Soon, the receptionist realizes Dom and Cole are a couple and is embarrassed once again. They now get a call from Candace, who says she has spoken to other families. But her gut feeling says she should pick Dom and Cole to be the parents of her child. The couple is thrilled to hear the news. On their anniversary night, they drive to Zia’s restaurant. However, they get lost and drive off-road and get stuck. To make things worse, it starts to rain heavily, but Dom wants to help by being the knight in shining armour.
Where does the stranger drop Dom and Cole?
The car tyre is stuck in the puddle, and as Cole presses on the accelerator, the water sprays on Dom. Now, Dom calls Daniele to ask him to send help. As they wait, they start to worry about how they will raise a baby if they are incapable of finding their way to a restaurant. A man now arrives and yells at them in Italian that they drove into his driveway, blocking the path to his house.
On the way, the man gets out and kills a crying horse, enters the car, and tells the couple in Italian that he will drop them off and come back for the dead horse. Obviously, Dom and Cole are unable to understand anything. After a bit of a drive, the man drops them in front of a house. It’s raining heavily, so they knock on the door, and an old woman opens the door.
They try to communicate with the woman, asking her to use her telephone. However, the woman takes Dom’s phone to put it on charge. As they wait, they see some pictures on the wall and realize this is Zia and it’s her restaurant. They are now served with delicious pizza and wine. Zia asks them to kiss, and they do, but Zia realizes she brought out the wrong wine, so she makes a disgusting face, which Dom and Cole misunderstand as Zia’s aversion to them kissing. A while later, Zia brings out another pizza, but this one has meat. When Cole does not touch it, Dom explains that he will offend Zia. To not offend Zia, Cole eats meat even though he has not touched meat for over a decade. Even though Zia knows the couple doesn’t understand Italian, she tells them her life story.
What happens to Zia?
Zia has two children, Massimo and Giovanni. A year ago, Giovanni died. After Giovanni died, Zia closed the restaurant. When Daniele informed Zia about their visit, Zia was filled with joy. Now, Zia looks at Dom and says he looks like Giovanni. Eating the meat makes Cole sick, so he rushes to the washroom. While Cole is away, Zia helps Dom take off his shirt to clean it and gives him Giovanni’s shirt instead.
Meanwhile, Cole finds Zia’s husband on a respirator, who then rushes to tell this to Dom, but stops seeing Dom without his shirt. Cole sees that Dom’s phone is connected to the charger, but it is not plugged in. Suddenly, the power goes off, and everyone moves around in a frantic state. Since Cole can’t see anything, he rushes onto the top, but he accidentally bumps into Zia, who falls down the stairs just as the power comes on.
They try to call an ambulance, but the numbers aren’t working. So, Dom gives Zia CPR but instead breaks Zia’s rib bones. They now discuss the next course of action when they see a car approaching the house. So, Dom goes back to the dining room, and a man arrives asking for Dom’s car keys in an intimidating way. After giving the keys, Dom heads back down to explain the situation to Cole.
They take Zia’s body out to the dining room and place her on the table, all the while breaking some more bones in Zia’s body. Now, Dom tells Cole that they cannot get involved in this crime as it will jeopardize the life of their child. So, they need to find Zia’s car keys and flee. Just then, a car approaches, so they put Zia’s body under the dining table and wait. The man who had taken the car keys comes back and hands them over to Dom.
Why was Massimo stabbed?
It turns out the man is Massimo, Zia’s other son. Massimo says Zia called him to help Dom and Cole find and rescue their car. Furthermore, Massimo adds that they gave Zia a new life by wanting to eat her pizza. Now, Massimo asks Zia to bring them some wine. When Zia does not answer, Massimo says Zia is deaf. Cole says they are driving, so they shouldn’t drink, but Massimo insists.
Seeing Massimo, Dom gets weak and is about to confess about Zia’s death, but Cole stops Dom. When Massimo leaves to bring wine, Dom and Cole rush out and bump into Massimo’s fiancée, Francesca. Now, Dom returns to the house as he needs to get the car keys and his phone. Inside, Massimo gets angry seeing Dom wear Giovanni’s shirt, but Dom explains Zia was the one who gave it to him.
Outside, Cole chats with Francesca, but Dom is stuck with Massimo. While Massimo was getting wine, he read text messages from Candace that she had gone into labour and they would be dads soon. Massimo is telling Dom that he is happy that Dom and Cole will be dead (he means Dad). Hearing this, Dom is afraid as he thinks Massimo wants to kill Dom. Now, Cole enters and hears the same thing, so he stabs Massimo.
Once again, Massimo says Cole will be dead, so Dom stabs Massimo. Massimo falls unconscious, bleeding. So, Cole performs CPR and brings Massimo to life, but Massimo is bleeding profusely, so they need to call the doctor. Just then, Dom sees Candace’s message and realizes Massimo was trying to say they are going to be dads. They call Candace and find out that she is in the hospital, ready to deliver the baby, as her water broke just after their call.
I Don’t Understand You (2024) Movie Ending Explained:
Before the call ends, Massimo is dead. Now, Dom and Cole try to clean up the mess when Francesca walks in and sees Cole with a knife. Seeing this, Francesca runs, so Cole chases after her. While Cole enters a barn chasing after Francesca, Dom takes Massimo’s truck and starts driving towards the barn. Afraid, Francesca comes running out of the barn just as Dom speeds up his car. Accidentally, Dom kills Francesca. They now take Francesca’s body inside the house as well.
There, they get the idea of burning the bodies in a wood-fired oven. As they try to push Massimo’s body inside, Zia wakes up. Afraid, Cole smacks Zia’s head, knocking her unconscious. They now burn their bodies, change into different clothes, and drive away. On the way, they accidentally run over and kill the man who had rescued them from the ditch the previous night. That morning, the cops arrive and talk to Zia’s husband, asking who killed the family. The man says queers, but the cop misunderstands the man, thinking he called the cops queers.
In anger, the cops start shouting, and because the respirator is not plugged in, Zia’s husband dies. The cops find the personalized knife (the one Daniele gave Cole), so they can now trace it back to the killer. By now, Dom and Cole have bought plane tickets to Pittsburgh to meet Candace. They almost enter the gates when the airport security stops them. So, Dom says he will take the fall and starts apologizing, saying accidents happen. The reason the security stopped them was that Dom had forgotten his passport.
They now reach the hospital and meet their baby boy. The couple decides to name the baby Giovanni. A few years later, Dom and Cole record a video for prospective moms as they want another child. This video is just as chaotic as the first one. In the video, Giovanni makes an appearance. In the post-credits, we see the cops find Daniele and arrest him as he was linked to the rented car and also the one who got the customized pocket knife. The cops think Daniele was the one who killed Zia and her family, as they also have records of Daniele calling Zia multiple times.
In the end, Dom and Cole get away with the murders, but Daniele is taken into custody. Dom and Cole don’t get in trouble in the future as well. We see them happy with their son Giovanni. The film highlights the fears and anxieties that queer/gay couple face before adopting a child. These uncertainties are translated into the accidents that occur during their course of time in Italy. As much as they want to have a child of their own, there is a deep-seated fear about how they will raise the child.
When they accidentally enter someone’s driveway, they start to question this. Yet, after the accidental murders, Dom is determined to keep their record clean for their child so the child’s life is not jeopardized. Despite it all, a single question remains- was it okay for Dom and Cole to get away with the murders (even though some were accidental) without repercussions?
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