Beth (Kristen Bell), a successful, single and clumsy woman, has been waiting for Mr Right for years but love is a luxury she can't afford and she's been left extremely bitter. She flies to Rome for her younger sister's impulsive wedding and meets Nicholas (Josh Duhamel), a lovely yet equally clumsy man, and they hit it off. Just as Beth decides to get romance another go she sees him kissing another woman, the groom's "crazy cousin".
Drunk and angry, Beth picks up coins from the "fountain of love" and later learns from her sister, Joan, that legend says if you pick up another person's coin from the fountain that person will fall in love with you. The legend is true.
She is followed back to New York by a band of would-be lovers who have all fallen in love with her due to the spell. They are: Al, a sausage maker (Danny DeVito), a street illusionist named Lance (Jon Heder), a doting painter named Antonio (Will Arnett), and a narcissistic male model Gale (Dax Shepard). She also meets up with Nick again and slowly falls for him, only to realise that one of the coins (a poker chip) belongs to him.
There are two ways to break the spell: return the coins to the owners or to the fountain.
Tropes:
- Actor Allusion: Once again, Jon Heder and Efren Ramirez are a team.
- Author Appeal: In-universe Antonio the painter is obsessed with feet and focuses on them in all his work.
- Car Meets House: Beth and her suitors driving their tiny car into the museum, the doors open and they knock over nothing before driving into the elevator
- Casting Gag: Having Dax Sheppard at a Kristen Bell's wedding when he's not the groom? Hilarious!
- Chekhov's Lecture: "You cleaned me out last night, Padre"
- Fake Nationality: In-movie example. Although Antonio looks and acts Italian throughout the picture, when his coin is returned, he reveals that he is actually from Hoboken, having thought that going to Italy would make him a painter.
- The Klutz: Beth and Nick.
- Held Gaze: Nick and Beth share two extremely passionate Held Gazes, one right after they meet and one that ultimately leads to The Big Damn Kiss while at the museum.
- Hot for Preacher: Inverted, the poker chip was the priest's.
- Misplaced-Names Poster: That's
not Kristen Bell, that's Josh Duhamel! That's not Josh Duhamel, that's Kristen Bell! - Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: More like nice job Not breaking it.
- Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Once the spell is lifted, Antonio is revealed to be an American named Tony.
- Pair the Spares: Tony and Gale seem to get together; Celeste and Al definitely do.
- Pair the Suitors: Tony and Gale, last seen flirting during Beth's wedding.
- Poor Communication Kills: Nick's photographer friend makes pictures of Beth with the would-be suitors. Even though he witnessed her running away from them earlier in the film, rather than talk to her, he "needs to up his game".
- Stalker with a Crush: All of the men who are after Beth.
- Unwanted Harem: Of men
- Wishing Well: Inverted: an American tourist played by Kristen Bell steals coins from a wishing-fountain and finds all the things she doesn't want now begin to happen to her.
