Product: Under the Tuscan Sun (2003)
Rating: 5.0
The Sunlight Filled My Heart
I read Frances Mayes's book "Under the Tuscan Sun" before watching this film and gladly so. While the film took a different road than the book they both wound up smack dab in the middle of beautiful Tuscany each with its own brilliance.This film was adapted from an original memoir by writer/teacher Frances Mayes as she undertook the renovation of a Tuscan villa. The book is actually quite different than the story in the film but both are wonderful. Diane Lane stars as Frances and the story begins with divorce and the loss of love but it evolves into a sensual journey into Tuscany and ends with genuine love. Lane discovers herself while on a much needed vacation to Italy. She stumbles across a few signs that lead her to buy a beautiful, although run-down, Tuscan villa. This is where the real story begins filled with extraordinary shots of the beauty that can only be found in Tuscany and a brief examination of what makes life in Tuscany so amazing. Lane hires four workers, one Italian and three Polish, to renovate her treasured villa. Along the way walls fall down in clouds of billowing smoke, water boils where it shouldn't, thunder storms create havoc for humans and owls, olive trees begin to bear fruit, and relationships begin to form from a great supporting cast.This movie about a lost woman found is a true inspiration. Lane is excellent as the middle aged woman who loses her sense of self and discovers she never lost it after all. The movie is about life and love, beauty and new discoveries but mostly it is about family, that richness that gives us life, whether our own or one we pluck from available sources. The scenes are filled with the beauty of Italy, flowers in bloom, wine and food prepared with love and great effort is paid to the scenic views of such a rich country. Be prepared to look for signs of your own after watching this film, craving a table full of food with a family to sit down and enjoy it with and you may even find yourself booking the next flight to Tuscany for some villa shopping of your own under the glorious Tuscan sun of course.