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More movies should start with a thinly veiled warning to critics. Under the Tuscan Sun is the journey of Frances Mayes (Diane Lane) as she tries to reclaim her life and herself after falling into an unexpected tailspin.
A tailspin that begins when she learns that her husband has been having an affair. An affair with a woman married to a man who wrote a book that Frances had roasted in a review. So, the warning seems to be don't give this movie a bad review or we just may break up your marriage and force you to move to Europe. Maybe I read too much into that, but just in case, I'm looking at evening French classes.
Director and screenwriter Audrey Wells has so far split her career between romance (The Truth About Cats & Dogs, Guinevere, and next year's Shall We Dance?) and juvenile comedies (George of the Jungle, The Kid). Under the Tuscan Sun is a romantic comedy drama, or maybe a dramatic comedy romance, or something like that. Regardless, the movie tries to play it three ways and never commits to any of them. You'll probably smile a lot, but never laugh. You'll watch with interest to see what happens as various people fall in love in various ways, but find that you don't particularly care.
The format is basically a travel diary of Frances' tour of Tuscany, where she impulsively buys a run-down villa and sets about putting the houseand her lifein order. While creating the opportunity for way too many postcard-like voiceovers, it also allows Wells to keep the story moving, as you fade in and out of vignettes rather than a rigidly structured narrative. Time passes in leaps and jumps, but you get everything you need without excess.
Diane Lane is the definitely the highlight of the movie. She is gorgeous in a fundamental way that seems more real than your average Hollywood actress. It may be chauvinism, but if nothing else it was a pleasure to watch her on the screen for 100 minutes. She isn't given much to do, so her performance can't begin to reach the heights of her Academy Award-nominated performance in last year's Unfaithful; but she almost sells this movie through force of will.
Unfortunately, she's surrounded mostly by blandness that wanders on and off the screen, providing little but distraction. The always-enjoyable Sandra Oh (best known for HBO's Arli$$) gets a few good spots as the funny, but wise, friend. Perhaps the most interesting character in the movie is Katherine, a free-spirit living the lessons she learned from Frederico Fellini, one of Italy's great filmmakers. It is around this character that Wells probably makes her best choices, inserting her cautiously into the story. Teasing us with this interesting character, but holding her back so that while we want to learn more, we can also see that familiarity would ruin it.
Under the Tuscan Sun is a pleasant enough experience, but not much more than that. It should make for a good date movie and the men in the audience needn't worry about neither falling asleep or an embarrassing case of tears. The film earns its PG-13 with some foul language and one sex scene in which nothing is shown, but much is implied.
Here's hoping that Touchstone lets me keep my wife.
Under the Tuscan Sun is a Touchstone Pictures production
Written and directed by Audrey Wells
Starring: Diane Lane, Sandra Oh, Raoul Bova
Rated PG-13 for sexual content and language.
150 minutes
 
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