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All-Reviews.com Movie/Video Review
Under The Tuscan Sun
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  out of 4
| *Also starring: | Sandra Oh, Vincent Riotta, Dan Bucatinsky, Lindsay Duncan, Ralph Palka, Kristoffer Ryan Winters |
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Review by Harvey Karten
2½ stars out of 4
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Any psychoanalyst will tell you that since happiness comes
from within, if you try to find it by escaping to another place, you
won't succeed because you always have yourself with you
everywhere you go. But any psychoanalyst is wrong, at least
according to Frances Mayes, who wrote the novel "Under the
Tuscan Sun" and Audrey Wells who adapted the book to her
screenplay and sat in the director's chair. If you don't believe
everything you read in Ms. Mayes novel, you should be
convinced by Diane Lane, who performs in the role of a writer
who is dumped by her husband after a fairly long marriage,
leaves her capacious San Francisco home to spend a few
unhappy weeks in a transient apartment, and lands in the village
of Cortino in Italy's sunny Tuscany region. Tuscany is one of
the more popular resort areas of well-to-do Americans but few
people states-side would elect to spend a lifetime there.
Frances Mayes (Diane Lane) does, because she's tired of
avoiding risks all her life. Her trip pays off. Or does it? We're
left with an ending that happily does not neatly tie things up,
while at the same time we in the audience not only wish her the
best but given her looks and charming personality, we could
hardly consider her an over-the-hill woman who has as much
chance of finding a mate as she has of lightning striking her
down.
There's a lot of cutesy stuff, syrupy dialogue, and unrealistic
concepts here but Ms. Lane is so fetching that we'll suspend
disbelief and go along with the sentiments. Her husband's a pig
who is apparently carrying on an affair behind Frances's back
(he's an idiot as well, given the woman to whom he's married),
and even worse he's demanding alimony from her not just
despite of the fact that she supported him for years but, under
California law, because of that mistake. Paid off in cash for her
half of the house, she joins a gay tour (don't ask) at the behest
of her best friend, Patti (Sandra Oh), buys a villa with enough
acreage to take two oxen a couple of days to plow the land,
engages the services of an all-too-adorable team of contractors,
and of course meets her prince in the form of the captivating
Marcello (Raoul Bova).
Without the picture-postcard scenery, probably the best vistas
ever shown to an American audience of Tuscany, the film would
be pleasant enough, if formulaic. With the scenery, however,
"Under the Tuscan Sun" pits the beauty of the region against the
loveliness of Ms. Lane. The contest is a close one, and we don't
mind if either competitor wins. The journey is everything and
"Under the Tuscan Sun" proves the adage that Italians, unlike
Americans, know how to have fun.
Copyright © 2003 Harvey Karten
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