Under The Tuscan Sun Movie Review:


Touchstone-3.8 Stars

After a bitter divorce writer Frances Mayes (Diane Lane) decides to take a trip to Italy In the romantic drama Under the Tuscan Sun.

Her girlfriends surprise her with a tour ticket of the Tuscan countryside and urge her to go and get away from her misery.

While on her visit to this picturesque European region, Frances sees a for sale ad for a local old decrepit villa.

On a whim she decides to buy the place and renovate it. Even though she doesn't speak the language and doesn't know the customs of the place, Frances wants to live her fantasy and turn the house into her romantic fairy tale home.

Reality quickly sets in as she tries to hire a remodeling crew and renovate her place without having a clue to what a mess she got herself into.

With only her will, intelligence and stubbornness, Francis manages to find trouble, romance and new friends as she tries to get over her painful shocking divorce and start anew.

Sweet with humor mostly derived from culture clashes, this film has a nice feel to it as well as being beautiful to watch.

Diane looks great and plays wonderfully through the various emotional roller coaster rides her character takes in the movie.

Although some of the supporting cast is portrayed in a stereotypical fashion, it doesnt really disturb the flow of the story.

There are a few repetitive scenes that hold back the film a bit but not much and are not that bothersome.

Director Audrey Wells knows how to pull you into a breathtaking romantic fantasy and lets you dance on the clouds a while.

Under the Tuscan Sun is a feel good woman empowering film that is photographed stunningly and takes advantage of the charming environment of the region to simmering effect.

Whether you are going on a date or just want to experience a romantic adventure, Under the Tuscan Sun is like a nice breeze on a warm day that should make you feel good and perhaps fall in love.

Gil Benzeevi

While it starts very well indeed as a kind of blushing Shirley Valentine wannabe, the slide into syrup starts early on and only finishes when the entire film is soaked in gooey sentiment. Excellent performances and a witty script help, but not quite enough.

After enduring a particularly brutal and sudden divorce in San Francisco, Frances (Lane) finds herself on a cheerfully gay tour of Italy, which she abandons when she spots a gorgeous old villa for sale and decides to start her life over again in Tuscany. Desperately looking for love again, she builds a sort of family out of her estate agent (Riotta), a trio of Polish builders (Szajda, Pelka, Vulicevic), a mad Englishwoman (Duncan), sundry neighbours and her best friend visiting from the States (Oh). She flirts with lots of handsome Italians, including a supermodel (Bova) she thinks might be The One. And life continues to throw surprises at her until she realises that she's better off just holding on for the ride instead of worrying about what's around the next corner.

This is a nice lesson to learn, but writer-director Wells lays it on so thickly that, after the third conveniently contrived plot turn and the fifth heavy-handed rebirth metaphor, we start to feel queasy. Then she states the message about 10 times in rapid succession just to make sure we got it. It's a surprising misstep for an otherwise thoughtful and amusing script, loosely based on a true story. Lane plays the role exceptionally well--there's not much to it really, but she manages to convey authentic subtext and a nice comic sensibility that keeps us on her side. Meanwhile, the supporting cast do a fine job in their roles, but each person and situation is so loaded with Important Life Lessons that the film sags badly under the pressure to teach us something. But if you take it as just a bit of overly sweet fluff, it's rather enjoyable really.

Rich Cline

Thinking her newly divorced friend needs something to cheer her up, Patti (Oh) gives Frances (Lane) a ticket to a ten-day holiday to Tuscany. What she didn’t expect was for her to fall in love with the Italian countryside and buy a villa. Frances sees this as a new start but could she just be running away from problems that will always be there, wherever she is in the world.

The idea of leaving all your problems behind and escaping to a new life could should appealing to most people but throw in the promise of romance and you have the perfect ingredients for a “chick-flick”. Based on the novel by Diane Lane’s character in the movie, Frances Mayes about her memories of renovating her Tuscan house, the filmmakers decided to throw in a romance element to bring in its target audience, women over 35. The good news is that it works quite well but this all down to Diane Lane.

Since receiving her Oscar nomination for “Unfaithful”, studios have finally started to take notice of this talented actress and given her a lead role. The movie is quite a big step for Lane as she is the only real star name in the picture and everything is mounted on her slender shoulders. She grabs the chance however and carries the picture extremely well. This is a likable character and Diane Lane makes her so, making you care what happens to this lonely divorcee as we accompany her on her Tuscan adventure.

There is limited but good support from her surrounding Italian ensemble. There is a nice, incidental story between one of contractors and the girl next door and Frances herself manages to fall for a local Italian man, played nicely by Raoul Bova. Sandra Oh is also good as her pregnant, lesbian friend.

‘Under the Tuscan Sun’ is a nice chick-flick that is never to taxing and panders well to its target audience. Diane Lane is extremely watchable and while the story may go on fifteen minutes too long, there is enough to the film’s message across. Something will come along when you leased expect it. If only life was that simple.

Star Rating = * *

Jamie Kelwick

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