Main Cast: Diane Lane, Sandra Oh, Lindsay Duncan, Raoul Bova, Vincent Riotta
Release Year: 2003
Country: US
Run Time: 113 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG13
Plot
A woman starts her life over with a new home in a new land in this romantic comedy drama . Frances (Diane Lane) is a writer in her mid-'30s who feels emotionally derailed after her divorce. Unhappy and unable to write, she isn't sure what to do with her life, and her best friend Patti (Sandra Oh) decides she needs some time away from her problems. With that in mind, Patti gives Frances a ticket for a two-week tour of the Tuscany region of Italy; while there, Frances finds a dilapidated old villa. Charmed by the warmth, beauty, and charm of the small town of Cortona, Frances impulsively decides to buy the villa, thinking she can fix it up herself. The home proves to be more of a handyman's special than she imagined, but as she slowly gets the hang of household maintenance, Italian style, Frances develops a new confidence as she makes friends with her neighbors and finds love with a handsome local named Marcello (Raoul Bova). Under the Tuscan Sun is loosely adapted from the memoir by Frances Mayes, who (unlike the leading character of the film) remained happily married during her sojourn in Tuscany. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
This overall thrust of this chick flick doesn't stray far from formula, but the filmmakers fill Under the Tuscan Sun with enough smart casting and unorthodox flourishes to keep things interesting far longer than they might have. Hollywood vet and Oscar nominee Diane Lane has earned the right to rest on her laurels; for her, that means letting her innate charm and screen charisma do most of the work and summoning up the odd moment of actual acting chops only on the rare occasion in which the script requires it. In smaller roles, Sandra Oh and Lindsay Duncan get to have lots more fun, Oh as a snarky lesbian sidekick and Duncan as an eccentric, over-50 actress with the appetite of a woman half her age. As far as the plot goes, the elliptical happy ending is implicit in the premise, but writer/director Audrey Wells makes sure her characters earn it -- even if that means the third act drags on into a fourth one. Luckily, cinematographer Geoffrey Simpson makes the most of every gorgeous moment even when the story begins to sag. A well-crafted, picturesque romantic comedy isn't exactly a hard sell in Hollywood, but Under the Tuscan Sun surpasses the genre's requirements more often than it settles for them. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
Frances Mayes (Diane Lane) is a San Franciscowriter whose seemingly perfect life has just taken an unexpected detour. She finds out at a party that she's hosting, from a writer to whom she had given a bad review of his book, that her husband has been cheating on her. Her recent divorce has left her depressed and with terminal writer's block, and her best friend Patti (Sandra Oh), a lesbian who is expecting a child, is beginning to think Frances might never recover. Patti convinces her to take an Italian vacation, to Tuscany, but it's on a gay tour (Patti and her partner Grace (Kate Walsh) had booked it for themselves, but changed plans after Patti became pregnant). At first she refuses, but then after being in her new, gloomy apartment, she decides that it is a good idea to get away for a little while after all. In Tuscany, while stopping in a small town she sees a notice about a villa for sale, in Cortona. Then while the passengers are back on the tour bus, the bus has to stop to let a herd of sheep pass, and Frances realizes that they've stopped in front of the very villa that she had seen for sale, something she believes is a sign. She asks the driver to stop and she gets off the bus. In a series of serendipitous events she becomes the owner of a lovely yet dilapidated villa in beautiful Tuscany. From this point her life begins anew with a variety of interesting characters and unusual but gentle souls. She hires a crew of Polishimmigrants to renovate the house. Over time, Frances also befriends her Italian neighbors and develops relationships with her Polish workers, the realtor who sold her the villa, and Katherine, an eccentric, aging, British actress. Later, she is visited by the now very pregnant Patti, whose partner Grace has left her. Frances does meet a romantic interest, Marcello, but it does not last, and she is about to give up on happiness when two young lovers come to her for help. Eventually, she finds the fulfillment she was searching for in a wedding at the villa, where she also meets an American writer who is traveling in Tuscany. The movie ends with the possibility of a new love in her life.
Reception
Under the Tuscan Sun opened well in the United States, grossing $9,751,425 on 1,226 screens on opening weekend, September 28, 2003. This was more than half of its estimated $18 million dollar budget. The film was a box office success earning $43,610,723 domestically for a total of $58,878,723 worldwide.[1]
