Product: Under the Tuscan Sun (2003)
Rating: 3.0
I Have a High Tolerance but............
I am a guy who actually enjoys nauseating "chick flicks" but, this was too much even for me. I have actually tolerated every Meg Ryan romantic comedy and other movies of that genre but this ...!!!!! The movie slips in some of the Hollywood social values that have disturbed many Americans in the so called "red states." Diane Lane stars as a recently divorced woman who is coming to terms with her life. She has two close friends, a lesbian couple and, of course in grand Hollywood style, they are seeking to become parents. This is an issue that is debated in this country, but, predictably enough in this movie, it is treated matter of factly as though this is the norm (but then again, the norm is whatever the Hollywood elite says it is).Anyway, this couple gets their newly divorced friend to take a trip to Italy on a tour for gay people. She goes and falls in love with a house in Tuscany which needs tons of work. She bolts from the tour and somehow has enough money to purchase this house and get it fixed up. Her ensuing romantic dilemnas are too much even for even my high tolerance for sickening schmaltz. Because of the delightful escapism of the beautiful settings of Tuscany, I will grudgingly give this movie three stars.