Own the rights?
84 out of 106 people found the following review useful: Diane Lane is Brighter Than the Tuscan Sun, 28 September 2003 Author: Ralph Michael Stein (riglltesobxs@mailinator.com) from New York, N.Y.
"Under the Tuscan Sun" is a polarizing film that seems to leave viewers (and critics) either in love with a story of growth and renewal or dismissive of its line. I'm firmly in the former camp.Based so loosely on Frances Mayes's own account of her regeneration in beautiful Italy as to carry an end credit pronouncing that substantial fictionalization replaced key true details, writer and director Audrey Wells crafted a stunning vehicle for Diane Lane whose radiance projects from the screen powerfully. And in every scene.Diane Lane, as the changed-from-the-memoir Frances, abandons San Francisco after her never shown cad husband divorces her, getting the house she once loved. Frances is a writer and literary critic. Why does she leave S.F.? Two of her closest friends give her a ticket for a gay bus tour of Italy and she jumps off the bus to look into a ramshackle old country house up for sale. Impetuosity? Definitely. Believable? Yes, actually.Frances' new house isn't a handyman's special, it's a contractor's assurance of food on the table for a very long time. Frances adapts to the house and the locals with remarkable aplomb. Tuscany is sunny but its light fades before Frances's challenged but resilient commitment to not just restore a house but to create a home. The two aren't the same. I'm not sure how many male directors could so well create that reality.Director Wells tells the story from a woman's heart but with a breadth of humor and drama that should appeal to anyone who wants to believe, or needs to hope, that there really is a light at the end of the tunnel of marital infidelity and dissolution. Supporting Diane Lane is Sandra Oh as Patti, her closest friend. In relatively short scenes, Ms. Oh displays a lively and laconic grasp not only of her friend's life but also of her own which is not, as they say today, devoid of "issues."Lindsay Duncan is Katharine, an older woman determined to hold on to her now fading attractiveness through a blend of humor, earthiness - and alcohol. Her character may be predictable but she's also fun.Raoul Bova has garnered some press attention as handsome Marcello, the romantically available and affluent Italian. That's a character we've seen in many, many films and Bova delivers an expectedly satisfactory but hardly deep performance.Yes, Diane Lane is beautiful but there is much more to her acting than a shining appearance. Her facial gestures, mirroring her emotions as they shift from moment to moment, are the product of extraordinary acting ability. And her character draws a powerful portrayal.Credit also must go to cinematographer Geoffrey Simpson. Perhaps it would be impossible for a blind camera director to turn in anything but a gorgeous visage of rural and urban Italy but Simpson did do a marvelous job of making the locales come alive.This is a film for adults, for people who can understand pain and the search for recovery and understand the difficulty of coming back from a space that once offered the mirage of safety and security.I loved this film.9/10.
35 out of 50 people found the following review useful: Gorgeous Eye Candy, 15 February 2004 Author: PrairieCal from USA
I love this movie. I don't care if it was a "chic flick" or what. Whatever, it was so breathtakingly beautiful that anyone should be entranced by it's sheer visual assault on the senses. When you add great performances by a fine cast, and an interesting story, you can't loose. Who wouldn't love to escape for an hour or so to the Italian Sun? Even the ending was realistic. This is the second movie I've seen lately that took place in a beautiful countryside Italian Villa. The other, "My House in Umbria" was equally eye catching and enjoyable. But I think I've reached the point of satiation. If I have to see one more movie where the lead actress has nothing to do but make friends, remodel her gorgeous Tuscan Villa, eat gourmet food on her sunny patio in the garden, have no money worries, and not work, I think I might snap. I pray daily that Diane Lane and Maggie Smith will one day be slinging hash in a Barstow truckstop and experience the real world.
19 out of 25 people found the following review useful: A stroll down a Tuscan Lane, 4 February 2004 Author: George Parker from Orange County, CA USA
In "Under the Tuscan Sun", a recently divorced American writer/critic (Lane) ventures to Italy where she sets about putting the pieces of her shattered life back together in the rustic, bucolic, scenic countryside of Tuscany. Lane registers a fine performance in this lighthearted drama spritzed with humor and romance which is as lovely as it is clumsy. Obvious in its attempts to tug at the heart-strings of romantics with all the expected Italian stereotypes and cliches, this flick received mixed reviews and will resonate most with more mature sentimentalists. Those who enjoy this film may want to check out V. Redgrave in "A Month by the Lake" (1995). (B)
20 out of 33 people found the following review useful: Lovely movie, 7 December 2005 Author: breedingnd1 from United States
This movie is wonderfully romantic. It is sweetly written and just a good girl movie. Any woman who has had any sadness in her life and needs a new start will appreciate this movie. The views are incredibly and makes you want to fly to Tuscany and live there forever! The characters are those that make you fall in love and you will relive moments in your life while watching this movie. I will say you need to be in a loving or romantic mood before watching this movie. It does take a few minutes to really get good but when it does, it's wonderful. I hope you enjoy as much as I did. A Walk in the Clouds with Keanu Reeves is also like this movie. It has the same romance and drama but is much sweeter.
8 out of 11 people found the following review useful: Can I give this a zero?, 8 January 2008 Author: tezhowes from Moncton, N.B. Canada
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
Well to do American divorcée with more money than brains buys a rundown villa in Tuscany. (Much more money; whilst having to dicker over the price, she subsequently manages to cook sumptuous buffets for her workmen and wander around Italy indefinitely with no job or apparent means of support.) Interminable boredom and the inevitable Italian lover ensue; this is a chick flick in the most pejorative sense of the term. Lane acts like an unskilled clueless teenage ingénue throughout - which dynamically clashes with her seriously fading looks - along the way smashing into a variety of (mostly Italian) cardboard stereotypes, dykes, divas, senile contessas and gigolos among them. Bloated with unnecessary scenes, the most ridiculous being a clumsily inserted and pointless recreation of the fountain scene in 'La Dolce Vita'. (A similar conceit was used in an effective and appropriate narrative context in 'Only You', Norman Jewison's vastly superior ode to Italy and romance). 'Tuscan Sun' may be the most vacant piece of cinema of the last decade, despite its admittedly well-lensed panoramas of Italy. Bonus negative point for the extraneous lover parachuted in at the last minute to provide requisite Hollywood ending for its targeted audience of Oprah-brainwashed housewives. Avoid at all costs, unless, of course, you view Oprah and Dr. Phil as pinnacles of intelligent discourse.
9 out of 13 people found the following review useful: absolute garbage and racist towards Italians, 23 January 2007 Author: aryan_tea_company from Belarus
Yes i really found this film distasteful. I didn't like the Sandra Oh character, she really annoyed me. It is unlikely she would be accepted into rural Italian life due to the fact she is non-white. this was a bit of PC nonsense. the film is also offensive to Italian men. For instance, the one man she (Diane Lane) has an affair is turns out to be a caddish cheat. But guess what: at the end your typically plasticky American brick-head turns up, all cheesy white smile and tan, and she finally finds what she wants all along: a real American man, and now she has colonized another part of the world. In fact, this film is quite racist in its depiction of Italians and the way it subjugates them as either smarmy lotharios or backward peasants. the photography was good but the film and its attitude were trash.
16 out of 27 people found the following review useful: Too Much Cheese..., 1 November 2003 Author: Pablo Picassimo from Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Let's get the positives of this movie out of the way:1. Fantastic Italian scenery: From Positano to Florence, the movie shows the audience back drops that take the breath away.2. Diane Lane: Played very well and convincing 'Frances' character.Beyond that, the movie is plagued with so much cheese (SPOILERS WARNING):1. Too many coincidences: Things that happen out of no where, like the bus stopping in front of the house that Frances happened to see earlier advertised on a Real Estate ad. Or France picking up Marcello just to escape the taunting Italian men. And the coincidences continue to pile.2. Employment: I'm not sure if I am the only person to see that none of the people actually worked in this movie, except for the Polish labor, who renovated her Frances' new (old) home. Coming out of a divorce, you'd expect Frances to have only some change in her pocket, yet she's able to feast with the rest of the characters in the movie like she was born with a silver spoon in her mouth. Everyone appeared to have too much time on their hands. It all is nice to fantasize, but is highly unreal. And how about Katherine? She's probably living off the alimony from her previous divorces.3. Clichés and Stereotypes: Hearing that this was a 'chick flick', I expect some clichés, stereotype, and most important, a happy ending. Well, this movie has plenty of them. For starters, the lesbian couple was fine, but introducing the `Gay and Away' tour bus was a little too much. Secondly, seeing both Jerzy with the cigarette in his mouth and Zbigniew with the Polish novel in *every* single shot, portrayed the insignificance of their characters. Then there is the stereotype of Italian men who are nothing but unfaithful and promiscuous. And finally, through all the hardships of seeing Frances' relationships breakdown, she finds another fellow American writer (whom she criticized when he was in high school) who happens to be touring through the Tuscan region of Italy.To sum it up, this movie is a 5/10 on my book. Some good acting from Diane Lane and great scenery, which couldn't be saved due to hard to swallow reality checks.
24 out of 43 people found the following review useful: A Delightful Romance, With a Tour Through the Wonders of Italy and a Great Homage to the Italian Cinema, 29 March 2005 Author: Claudio Carvalho from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
When the American writer and critic Francesca (Diane Lane) divorces from her husband, she becomes very depressed. Meanwhile, her lesbian friend Patti (Sandra Oh) gets pregnant and Patti and her mate decide to give their travel to Tuscan in a gay tour as a gift to Frances, to lift her moral. Once in Italy, Frances decides to spend all her savings, buying an old villa in an impulsive decision. While reforming the place, Frances finds wonderful places, friendship with the locals and love. "Under the Tuscan Sun" is a delightful romance, with a tour through the wonders of Italy and a great homage to the Italian cinema, with a reference to "La Dolce Vita" and a minor participation of Mario Monicelli. Diane Lane looks like wine, becoming more gorgeous along the years, and with a lovely face and smile. I have never had the chance to visit Italy, and after seeing the magnificent locations and the nice people of Italy, I believe most of the viewers will have the feeling of expecting to have a chance to visit such a marvelous place. I really liked this enjoyable film. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "Sob o Sol da Toscana" ("Under the Tuscan Sun")
37 out of 69 people found the following review useful: Italian for beginners..., 9 November 2003 Author: jotix100 from New York
Something very strange happened on the way to make this film. It appears as though director and adapter, Audrey Wells, threw the original text away only to create her own trip to Tuscany. With the help of her gorgeous star, Ms. Wells found backing for this pastiche she ended up presenting to us, which bears almost no resemblance to the original book by Frances Mayes.This is a movie full of cliches: The lonely and naive American tourist that would stay in Italy, the Latin lover, the good lesbian friend, and last, but not least, the eccentric Brit living in the small town!The best thing this film offers is the radiant Diane Lane, who is just gorgeous enough to make us forget the story and what is she doing in the mess she is in. Also, Lindsay Duncan, another great British actress doing a crude interpretation of her own "La Dolce Vita" some 44 years later.This is a typical "date film" which will be enjoyed by those people that didn't read the book.
11 out of 18 people found the following review useful: Too long and too illogical, 15 February 2004 Author: MoonsofJupiter from Western Hemisphere
Unavoidable spoilers!I like a romantic comedy as much as the next moviewatcher, but this one had so many dumb things about it that I couldn't ignore them and enjoy the story. I don't even know where to begin, but I'll give it a try.Pains are taken to impress upon us that Frances, the leading lady, doesn't have much money after her loser husband takes half the house plus alimony. Well, fine, but when she goes to Italy she suddenly becomes independently wealthy, first buying a villa then employing three Polish workers full-time to restore the place. They were there the entire duration of the movie, which covered at least 8 or 9 months. Wardrobe? She arrived with one suitcase, but never wore the same thing twice after that. We see Frances tapping absently at the laptop occasionally and I suppose we're supposed to imagine she's reviewing a book...I wish I could get on that payroll.Italian stereotypes? You want it, you got it. Crazy old contessa who takes bird poop on the forehead of a stranger as a sign to sell her the prized villa. Okay, whatever, even though she would have gotten more money from the German couple who had first dibs. Suave love-em and leave-em Romeos? All over the place. Simple, good-hearted locals happy to pick your olives for you? A whole villageful. And then the biggest problem of all: Diane Lane's performance. How could an actress who was so good in Unfaithful be so bad this time? She twitched and grimaced like a female Hugh Grant, using delayed reaction goggle-eyes instead of emotion. The self-grabbing congratulatory dance she did in her bedroom after scoring with her young stud was painful to watch. Another awful scene was when Patti came back pregnant and abandoned and lay in the bed crying. Diane Lane's face was vacant, with a fake little soap opera frown of concern on her brow and a simpering smile on her mouth. Awful, and inexcusable of the director to leave that shot in.And all of this was just too long, with so many little unnecessary scenes that we didn't need. And what about that Tuscan sun we were promised? There were virtually no shots of the hot passionate sun of Italy, which would at least have helped to explain the crazy behaviour going on all around. And after all that poor Frances ends up with a goofy-looking failed American writer, while all that prime Italian beefcake goes to waste. Like my evening watching this.3 stars out of 10.
Add another review
