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, Rovi
The epitome of what a feel-good movie is supposed to be but rarely is, this one is beautiful to look at and life-affirming to think about, and it doesn't have a pretentious bone in its head.
Under the Tuscan Sun pretends to be juicy, but it doesn't allow any dribbles. It purports to make love all over us, but not without laying down lots of paper towels first.
It is a glorious refreshment to spend time with characters who aren't twenty-something eye bait, someone's virtuous, whiny wife or other reductive archetypes.
a romantic abomination wherein the main character's best friend is a pregnant Asian lesbian who comes to Italy to visit and ends up ruining the story's only semi-romantic aspect, and extends its painful length for an extra half-hour in the process.
No textbook romantic comedy, Sun conforms to what post-divorcees hear in support groups: don't look for someone to make you happy until you can be happy with yourself
En la vida real la gente no suele ser tan impulsiva. Por eso películas como ésta son disfrutables: nos ofrecen la fantasía de lo que sería nuestra vida si nos animáramos.
This is a cliched and silly chick flick, but the performances are not too bad, and the scenery is quite nice. It's not terrible, but it's also not really my type of movie. Having been to Tuscany though, I can say this movie actually meant something to me, and hell, it's a bit entertaining, and surprisingly not boring.
Again though, this film really didn't stand out for me.
October 4, 2011
Chris Weber
Super Reviewer
Cliched, but thankfully not too boring. It's been said that the movie is hardly similar to the memoir on which it's based, and that the memoir in itself (which includes recipes for most of the part) is quite boring (why am I not surprised?). Nevertheless, it was a NYT BS for more than 2 years!!! When I finished
watching the movie, I was quite disappointed. But when I realized that it's based on such a boring (surely, some people will have a contradictory opinion) memoir, I felt somewhat relieved.Although (or should is be "Since") the movie had *several* cliches thrown in, and a love story added to heighten the dramatic effect, it still failed to rise above the average fare. Can't recommend.
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