|
|
Christian Indie Radio
GetChristianMusic
Solid Walnut Music
|
|
|
|
|
|
Devotionals
|
|
Cartoons
Culture
Family
Games
Health
Homeschooling
Humor
Inspiration
Kids
Men
Ministry
Parenting
Poetry
Teens
Women
|
|
Statement of Faith
Contact Us
|
|
|
|
Under the Tuscan Sun
Review by Jane Robertson (Jane's bio)
Directed by Audrey Wells
Book by Frances Mayes
Screen story and screenplay by Audrey Wells
Diane Lane . . . Frances
Sandra Oh . . . Patti
Lindsay Duncan . . . Katherine
Raoul Bova . . . Marcello
Vincent Riotta . . . Martini
Mario Monicelli . . . Old Man with Flowers
MPAA: Rated PG for sexual content and language.
Yes, it's a chick flick, and it makes no pretense not to be. It's a woman's story, told through a woman's eyes, and men everywhere are praising it.
Actually, even if this movie were trying to be some other type of story, it probably couldn't. Diane Lane commands the screen. With an astounding list of credits (who would have realized she went all the way back to 1979's A Little Romance?), Lane built steadily toward this past year's best actress nomination for Unfaithful. And Tuscan Sun serves to highlight her luminescence.
Lane plays Frances, a writing instructor and book reviewer trying to recover from a painful divorce. On a trip to Italy she falls for a decaying old villa and buys it on impulse. It will be the basis for her new life, a life that will include a wedding . . . Right on schedule, she meets Prince Charming (Raoul Bova, a busy Italian actor making what is essentially his debut to American audiences). But will Frances and Marcello live happily ever after, or is it just the villa itself that will have a second chance?
In any case, Tuscany boasts a delightful sprinkling of quirky and/or sympathetic characters. One of them is Katherine (Lindsay Duncan, Mansfield Park, A Midsummer Night's Dream), a faded beauty with many memories and few inhibitions. Another is a mysterious old man carrying flowers (Mario Monicelli, an important Italian director and screenwriter), who will never acknowledge Frances's presence. A third, and the most significant, is Martini (Vincent Riotta, Captain Corelli's Mandolin). The real estate agent who sells her the villa, he becomes Frances's mainstay as she tries to settle into her home and her future.
The script is based on a book by Frances Mayes, a real-life professor of creative writing who moved to Tuscany. Audrey Wells adapted the book for the screen, using the same sensibility we saw at work in The Truth About Cats & Dogs and Disney's The Kid (but maybe not so evident in her George of the Jungle!). This was only her second directorial effort, the other being Guinevere in 1999, which we can all agree didn't make much of an impression. Here Wells more than redeems herself.
There is one element of this movie that will shock and offend some viewers. Frances's friend Patti (Sandra Oh, Big Fat Liar, The Princess Diaries) is engaged in a homosexual relationship; we aren't beaten over the head with the fact, but it's obvious. For all that the script would care, this could have been a straight couple, making the movie much more palatable to many, but it was the writer's and/or the director's choice, one guesses, to make a subtle statement.
Aside from that factor, the general subject matter would still keep this from being a family movie. Children would be almost certain to call it stupid and boring. After all, it's the story of an adult coping with adult problems. But for grownups, it's an exceptionally good movie—a fresh, warm story with a star who is nothing less than ideal in her role. Therefore, it's truly a shame that one unnecessary component will render Under the Tuscan Sun inaccessible to many people.
Copyright 2003, Jane Robertson. All Rights Reserved. Used by permission.
|
About Jane Robertson: Jane contributed to Chicken Soup for the Soul Celebrates Mothers, the Dawkins Project's CeLEBRATIONS: Notes to My Grandfather, and Kimberly Ripley's next Breath Deeply collection, all forthcoming. An editor for the nature magazine Snowy Egret, Jane wrote about a Scottish immigrant in Hope Was Worth the Risk, published in 1995.
E-mail Jane |
|
|
|