Product: Under the Tuscan Sun (2003)
Rating: 4.0
Diane Lane renovates a villa and her life in Tuscany
This movie has two things going for it that are quite appealing to me. One is Diane Lane because we are now both old enough that I do not have to feel guilty about having a crush on her in 1979 when she was barely a teenager and I was in graduate school. The other is Tuscany, because films like this are siren calls for tourists, especially if half the blood flowing in your veins is Italian in the first place. As a result of those twin forces I probably had higher expectations for this film than is warranted by what director Audrey Wells has put together.The story is relatively simple. Frances Mayes is a writer and critic who finds out her husband is having an affair. There is more injury to add to this insult in terms of divorce, alimony that she owes him, and the loss of her house. With nothing better to do Frances is sent by her friend Patti (Sandra Oh) on a gay bus tour of Tuscany where she stumbles across a nice little villa for sale. Frances knows that the way her life is going buying it would be a terrible idea. But an eccentric expatriate named Katherine (Lindsay Duncan) tells her, "Don't you just love those?" So it comes to pass that Frances buys a Italian villa that is in as much need of repair as her own shattered life.The villa is obviously the master metaphor in this film for the main character, but Wells does not spend as much time on it as she should. Maybe it is because Bob Villa and all of those who have followed in his wake have been the restoration of old homes a familiar experience for us. One of the deleted scenes on the DVD shows the discovery of the fresco on one of the villa's walls, which is exactly the sort of detail that we want to enjoy. We know that this house will be a home by the end of the film, so it is the process of transformation that matters, especially as it parallels that of Frances herself.This movie wants to be unconventional. At one point Frances unburdens herself and is told by the compassionate man to whom she is speaking: "Signora, please stop being so sad. If you continue like this, I will be forced to make love to you, and I've never been unfaithful to my wife." This movie is not Katharine Hepburn's trip to Italy in "Summertime." For those who are waiting expectantly for the new man in Frances' life to come walking through the door, this film is going to tease you in that regard until you are forced to think that maybe something else is happening here.I know that Wells took great liberties with the book written by the real Frances Mayes, who restored an abandoned villa in Italy without the motivation of a brutal divorce, but since the author did not complain and I have not read the book I have no reason to complain on that score. Instead I will point to the fact this film is only 102 minutes long and that if this film had clocked in close to two hours Wells would have been able to flesh out the restoration of the villa and the eccentric neighbors that become so important in the cinematic Frances' new life as she goes native.The end of the film recognizes the importance of those two elements, but they are often overwhelmed over the course of "Under the Tuscan Sun" by the less than satisfactory romantic elements. Fortunately Lane's performance forgives many of the fault's of the script and shows that after her Oscar nominated performance in "Unfaithful" that she now has some serious momentum going on in her acting career. She is so busy being at the center of this story of how Frances puts her life back together than both the character and the audience are surprised by the arrival of the requisite happy ending.In the final analysis "Under the Tuscan Sun" is not going to convert anyone. Confirmed romantics are going to find enough of what they crave in this film to make themselves happy and those who roll their eyes at such endeavors will have ample occasion to keep their orbs spinning. Those who read Mayes' novel will be wondering why they even bothered to keep her name for the main character and those who are fans of Diane Lane will simply be ecstatic to see her name appearing above the title.