Under the Tuscan Sun Review
by David N. Butterworth (dnb AT dca DOT net)January 13th, 2004
UNDER THE TUSCAN SUN
A film review by David N. Butterworth
Copyright 2004 David N. Butterworth
*1/2 (out of ****)
A romantic contrivance like "Under the Tuscan Sun" doesn't have to be deep,
or even original, but it shouldn't insult the intelligence and this latest Diane
"I won the Oscar® so just watch me now!" Lane vehicle insults the
intelligence.
It assumes that undiscerning moviegoers will plop down their $8.50 in order
to watch Ms. Lane, a decent actress by anyone's standards (although I would probably cite her work in films *other* than "Unfaithful," for which she won last year's coveted Best Actress award), cavort around in Northern Italy and that should be enough. But no.
Screenwriter and director Audrey Wells ("Guinevere") first has to get her there (unwillingly of course) and then, once she's there, get her to hook up with a younger man who will promptly bed her then dump her just as rapidly. But throughout all this (of course) she'll come to realize that family and friendships are more important than a good old roll in the Tuscan hay with an Italian stallion named Marcello ("of course" observes Lane's Frances when said hottie tells her his name).
Now if your characters are guilty of commenting on the predictability of your script then you can hardly blame curmudgeonly critics for taking a stab also. Although I *did* say unoriginality isn't necessarily a showstopper.
Frances is a recently divorced San Francisco writer whose pregnant lesbian
best friend Patti ("Big Fat Liar"'s Sandra Oh, playing light relief alongside the bugs that fall down shirt fronts and the washing machines that get hit by lightening, etc.) sends Frances on a gay tour of Tuscany so that she can kick-start
her creativity (shades of "Swimming Pool") and maybe find a nice Italian boy to make her happy, at least in the short term. "Under the Tuscan Sun" is the kind of film in which people you've never met just start talking to you out of the blue, friendly like, asking you to compose a letter to their dear mother
(because they're *not* a recently divorced writer) or purchase a falling-down villa because, well... it's for sale.
Before you can say "Duh!" Frances has purchased said villa before realizing
there's no Home Depot in town. That's not really a problem, however, since Frances seems to have vast amounts of money to throw around, especially at a trio of Polish laborers whose main purpose in the film is to get covered in brick face and stucco. Lane is certainly adequate in the part but this seems a strange choice for someone who has just been recognized by her peers as the best in her field (she's coasting at best, but that might be why she took the assignment, i.e., to take some time off from acting).
Watching the film I got a sense that the book on which it's based (Frances
Mayes's "Under the Tuscan Sun: A Home in Italy") might well be a sensuous read brimming with sumptuous details about the bounteous region and its colorful inhabitants, right on down to the 'Old Man with Flowers' who never waves to Frances until the very end (double "Duh!"). In that case then perhaps the film
version should also have been called "Unfaithful" because that's not what we see on screen. Talking of screens the very best way to view this film, I've determined, is on an A319 Airbus, on a ten-inch screen twenty feet away with poor sound quality.
Trust me on this.
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David N. Butterworth
dnb@dca.net
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