Product: Under the Tuscan Sun (2003)
Rating: 1.0
Simply awful
I can't believe anyone would write a positive view of this movie. I hope that Frances Mayes took the money and ran, because in this chick flick to end all chick flicks she's portrayed as almost a total bimbo, whereas she was actually running a department at a university.The problem is that the producer took very small parts of books on renovating a house in Tuscany, and added a totally unrelated focus on love. People love at every corner, and our heroine, who in both books spent almost all her time with her boyfriend, is bouncing uncontrollably around all the foreigners, all of whom might have an affair with her even though they're married.The chick-flickyedness of the movie goes over the top, with the producer not willing to give up the slightest cliché. You want kittens? We have kittens! You want babies? We have babies! You want handsome men who will have an affair with you, even though they've just met you? Got them too! Too bad none of the books had this. That also goes for the Italian public servant, who is a ravishing blonde who used to be a Fellini starlet, and the boy-toy polish worker who is sleeping with his girlfriend in Mayes' bed.Just when you think it can't get any worse, the asian friend of Mayes (another producer invention) shows up after you were glad she'd been left in the USA, and proceeds to give an even more leaden performance than at the beginning of the movie. However, this gives Diane Lane the chance to make meaningful but meaningless facial expressions (check out Lane's look when Sandra Ho is dancing, holding her baby).I think that if you find this movie fascinating reading either of the books will be an intellectual challenge.