Product: Under the Tuscan Sun (2003)
Rating: 4.0
Finding La Dolce Vita--a Must See for Italophiles
San Francisco based writer, college professor and book critic, Frances Mayes, hits the emotional skids when she is informed of her husband's extramarital affair and finds herself immersed in a divorce that lands her in a dismal hotel complex inhabited by sad and scarred victims of separation. Even though she is caught in the tailspin of her own disappointment, she accepts the gift of a trip to Tuscany from friends and embarks on a journey that will gradually fuel her life with optimism. On impulse, she purchases a ramshackle farmhouse in the countryside near Cortena and sets upon the seemingly impossible task of its renovation while simultaneously reinventing her own sensibilities and her lifestyle in general. As she toils under the Tuscan sun as an outsider to the town and its people, she finds herself becoming one of them, seeing each of the lives she encounters as an individual quest for La Dolce Vita so poignantly captured in Fellini's film and echoed by the aging Anita Ekberg wannabe who attempts to and advises Frances to retain a childlike innocence and exuberance when viewing any situation in the big bad world.With a lead like Diane Lane playing Frances, there must. of course, be a man, in this case a delicious hunk of Italian that cavalierly convinces Frances and the cameras to follow him from the ochre magnificence of Rome to the tiered splendor of the Amalfi coast. These sequences explode with so much visual pleasure the viewer sighs, involuntarily blinded by the sensual overload of color and sound and as expected, glimpses of both Lane and her lover as they frolic to the tune of the campanile's bells.For those who have read the book of the same name, there is no comparison. These are completely different stories. If you are expecting the idyllic sweetness of the book with its anecdotes of Italian life, forget it. The movie-Frances dwells on her divorce which springboards her into asking some of life's big questions, while the book-Frances has already worked all this out prior to writing the first page and immerses herself in the simple lovely indulgence of following the course of a sweet life of which she has already mapped out. The "Ed" that Frances finds at the end of the film, is with the book-Frances from the very start; in fact, they renovate the house together, content from the outset.I entered the theatre expecting this film to be mediocre based on the ubiquitous trailers seen on television which try far too hard to make the film seem cutsy rather than stimulating. My advise is to watch none of these sugary confections which take words of dialogue out of context to appeal to a certain audience; if you like all things Italian and are indeed, searching for a dolce vita of your own, go see the film. Disregard the obvious contrivances in the plot and prepare yourself to fall in love with the lush scenery that gently lulls that annoying sense of American expediency out of existence, for at least the two hour viewing time. Above all, view the film with the childlike pleasure of the Italians for whom every experience is a new one to be savored. Then go out and buy a copy of the book La Dolce Vita offered on Amazon.com to begin your own quest for the sweet life.