Because I live at the Other End of the World I'm writing my comments months after the film was first released overseas but it has only recently been on our screens here! Anyway, saw it with a friend and we were both not sure what to make of it. Having read Somerset Maugham many years ago in my youth, I felt it was very much like I remember his writing, holding up a certain class of the English to ridicule and scorn for their attitudes. But I thought that the script let everyone down and if the performances were not so exceptional the film would have been a 'bomb'. The scenery was superb but if you have been to Florence you know that is what it's like. The sets were magnificent and one imagines that was just how those fantastic villas and palaces must have looked and maybe still look like today. As already mentioned the acting was very good but in my opinion there was not 'something in the air' with Kristen Scott Thomas and Sean Penn. That 'something' was much more apparent between KST and the Massimo Ghini who played Leopardi. Overall it's a good film to see for light entertainment on a rainy Saturday afternoon.
Review of Up at the Villa
