Product: Under the Tuscan Sun (2003)
Rating: 4.0
Another reason to travel to Italy
The only thing that ruined my pleasure from this movie was the repeated thought "How can she afford all this...."? A thought that remained with me throughout the viewing. I apologize for being such a material girl but the lovely house does make you wonder. We are talking not only about the house itself whose price we understand how Frances Mayes afforded, but the everyday life who do cost a little money especially if you redo your house with such lovely furniture. It seems that Frances Mayes was very busy during the daytime (the meals she cooked seem to have taken hours to make), and only spent a few hours writing. Was that enough to afford life in Italy? I wonder. The house itself needed intense furnishing which no doubt cost money too... I assume these thoughts come to the mind of anyone watching this movie and asking himself "why not me"? well money seems to be one of the answers.However, casting these thoughts aside, this is indeed a movie that is a pleasure to watch, even if the storyline is a little banale and not totally credible. Indeed, the book by the same name is more detailed (and thus tedious) explaining how the long renovations came through. One picture however is worth a thousand words and watching the beautiful Italy is not like reading about it in a book.Diane Lane is lovely and beautiful and is a joy to watch. Her acting abilities (which were amazing in "Unfaithful") do not have a lot of "meat" besides several emotional outbreaks (usually over romantic issues) but she is warm and touching. Toscany however is the real star of this film with its landscape, beauty, light and people (together with all the regular cliches about the Italians... even cliches have some truth in them). What remains from this movie is not the story line but a burning desire to travel to Italy.