Diane Lane, heartbreak, and the beauty of Tuscany combine for a decent, but not great, movie. Under the Tuscan Sun is inspired by the book of the same name and Lane does play a character with the name Frances Mayes (the author of the autobiographical travelogue), but there was no story in the book, so writer/director Audrey Wells just made a bunch of crap up.
Wells has specialized in chick flicks so far in her career (The Truth About Cats and Dogs, Guinevere, next year’s English language remake of Shall We Dance? starring Richard Gere and J.Lo) and Tuscan Sky certainly falls into the same…pit. Now, I’m not saying this simply because the main character is a woman but because the character has the heartache and bad breaks piled on, yet fights her way to emotional stability with only the help of a few wise friends. Plus lots of foreshadowing, can’t forget the foreshadowing.
Tuscany is beautiful, Lane/Mayes meets up with colorful, if blemished, characters. Everyone calls her Francesca, even the slightly loony older English actress (think a mid-50s English Kim Catrell-ish Sex and the City type) who befriends her. She has a heart-opening affair with a wonderful Italian man who conveniently (for the plot) lives hours away in the South (Positano, not far down the Amalfi Coast from where I vacationed back in 2001). She even gets everything she asks for in the end. Yeah, it’s a chick flick though not a bad one–just like Spitfire Grill a few years ago.
Note: Yes, this does not mean I’ve in any way changed my mind from last week’s rant, we saw this movie at the CineLux theater in Almaden.
Recommended for date nights
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