© Buena Vista Pictures Distribution
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 house—and
her life—in 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
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
