Amazon.co.uk Review
Though she made her first movie at the age of 13, Diane Lane has only blossomed into a true star in her 30s, and Under the Tuscan Sun marks her full flowering. After a brutal divorce, Frances (Lane) is persuaded by her friend Patti (Sandra Oh) to take a tour of Italy--where, on a whim that she hopes will rescue her from her desperate unhappiness, she buys a rundown villa and sets out to renovate it. Along the way, she gets advice from a former Fellini actress, meets a scrumptious Italian lover, and helps support Patti after her own relationship derails. The conclusion of Under the Tuscan Sun holds no surprises, but the deft turns and observations along the way are delightful. Lane carries the film effortlessly but surely, exuding both heartbreak and re-awakening passion. --Bret Fetzer
Customer Reviews:
Tuscany here I come!!.......2008-02-09
Under the Tuscan Sun is a feel-good, lovely, sunny, friendly, and happy film.I watch it regularly with my 22 year old daughter, and we LOVE it. It is pure escapism, something that we would all love to do. Diane Lane is fabulous in it, totally believable as Frances, and portrays someone that I would love to have as a friend. I recommend watching it on a rainy, grey day (typical British Summer day really) and totally cheer yourself up by immersing yourself in it. I think it is how we all imagine life would be if we lived in our favourite holiday destinations, and I for one would love to!! I always find myself smiling throughout this film, it's better than any amount of Prozac!!
WATCH THIS FOR AN INSTANT HOLIDAY!.......2008-01-12
This is a great feel-good movie, and one to watch for an instant holiday. If you have been to Tuscany - it brings back memories, and if you have not, you want to go! Really good casting and acting throughout. Everything about the film is enjoyable. If you need hope for the future in any undertaking, this will give it to you!
One for the ladies............2007-03-25
... or romantics everywhere. I purchased this film primarily because I enjoyed `My House in Umbria'. And secondly because Linsay Duncan really is this century's Bette Davis - her calculated performances are always an event. I have not heard of Diane Lane, but as a previous Oscar nominee, I cannot imagine this film proved much of a challenge. She's fairly forgettable.
As a film, 'Under the Tuscan Sun' is nicely written and beautifully filmed with superb quality of picture and sound. However, I gather this is a film of the book - and I think it shows. Although, I'm sure readers will be thrilled with it's bounty of probable nods to the text and unexplained quirkiness, as someone who hasn't read the book, I found the story drifty and directionless... Or maybe I'm still disappointed that Mz Duncan's appearance is little more than a cameo role?
"Never lose your childish enthusiasm, and everything will come your way.".......2006-10-07
(3.5 stars) Based on the captivating memoir of author Frances Mayes, this fictionalized version of her story becomes a completely different creation--far more romantic, more predictable, and more obvious than the memoir. Here in the film, Frances, recovering from a devastating divorce, accepts a ten-day trip to Tuscany from two friends, leaves the tour group, and discovers and buys an abandoned villa. With her own imagination and the help of an inexperienced Polish crew, which has the predictable number of construction disasters, she renovates the old villa, always hoping that some day there will be a wedding, preferably her own to the perfect man, and a family to give life to the old place.
The scenery is beautiful (of course), the vistas are endless and well-photographed, and the challenges of making the old house both livable and comfortable are never-ending. Walls falling down, a violent thunderstorm, a visiting owl, and unlimited problems with the plumbing keep the humor visual and the viewer amused. Frances's affair and the unexpected arrival of a pregnant friend from home add intrigue and keep the complications coming. A secondary Romeo-and-Juliet plot involving the teenaged daughter of one of her neighbors and the Polish teenager working on Frances's house, add "depth" to Frances's own search for romantic happiness. Ultimately, the film ends as the viewer expects it will--romantically satisfying.
The subtlety of the book, with its lovely descriptions of the countryside and its people and its sense of reality, are sacrificed here in favor of visual excitement, humor, and ongoing love stories, and Frances's (real) self-discovery becomes trite moralizing in the film, as seen in the quotation that begins this review. Diane Lane is charming as Frances, but she, nevertheless, looks older than the young men to whom she seems to be attracted, and the gay subplot involving her friends and the tour which brings her to Tuscany are extraneous (but politically correct). Highly romantic and fun to watch, this film is a disappointingly Hollywood-ized version of a thoughtful and charming memoir. Mary Whipple
Lovely film for all ages.......2006-05-26
This is the sort of film that makes you want to leave the busy and often stressful everyday living in a city and go to a small and tranquil village in southern europe. The picure is very good and the screenplay is excellent. This is a great film for people of all ages
Amazon.co.uk Review
Though she made her first movie at the age of 13, Diane Lane has only blossomed into a true star in her 30s, and Under the Tuscan Sun marks her full flowering. After a brutal divorce, Frances (Lane) is persuaded by her friend Patti (Sandra Oh) to take a tour of Italy--where, on a whim that she hopes will rescue her from her desperate unhappiness, she buys a rundown villa and sets out to renovate it. Along the way, she gets advice from a former Fellini actress, meets a scrumptious Italian lover, and helps support Patti after her own relationship derails. The conclusion of Under the Tuscan Sun holds no surprises, but the deft turns and observations along the way are delightful. Lane carries the film effortlessly but surely, exuding both heartbreak and re-awakening passion. --Bret Fetzer
Customer Reviews:
Tuscany here I come!!.......2008-02-09
Under the Tuscan Sun is a feel-good, lovely, sunny, friendly, and happy film.I watch it regularly with my 22 year old daughter, and we LOVE it. It is pure escapism, something that we would all love to do. Diane Lane is fabulous in it, totally believable as Frances, and portrays someone that I would love to have as a friend. I recommend watching it on a rainy, grey day (typical British Summer day really) and totally cheer yourself up by immersing yourself in it. I think it is how we all imagine life would be if we lived in our favourite holiday destinations, and I for one would love to!! I always find myself smiling throughout this film, it's better than any amount of Prozac!!
WATCH THIS FOR AN INSTANT HOLIDAY!.......2008-01-12
This is a great feel-good movie, and one to watch for an instant holiday. If you have been to Tuscany - it brings back memories, and if you have not, you want to go! Really good casting and acting throughout. Everything about the film is enjoyable. If you need hope for the future in any undertaking, this will give it to you!
One for the ladies............2007-03-25
... or romantics everywhere. I purchased this film primarily because I enjoyed `My House in Umbria'. And secondly because Linsay Duncan really is this century's Bette Davis - her calculated performances are always an event. I have not heard of Diane Lane, but as a previous Oscar nominee, I cannot imagine this film proved much of a challenge. She's fairly forgettable.
As a film, 'Under the Tuscan Sun' is nicely written and beautifully filmed with superb quality of picture and sound. However, I gather this is a film of the book - and I think it shows. Although, I'm sure readers will be thrilled with it's bounty of probable nods to the text and unexplained quirkiness, as someone who hasn't read the book, I found the story drifty and directionless... Or maybe I'm still disappointed that Mz Duncan's appearance is little more than a cameo role?
"Never lose your childish enthusiasm, and everything will come your way.".......2006-10-07
(3.5 stars) Based on the captivating memoir of author Frances Mayes, this fictionalized version of her story becomes a completely different creation--far more romantic, more predictable, and more obvious than the memoir. Here in the film, Frances, recovering from a devastating divorce, accepts a ten-day trip to Tuscany from two friends, leaves the tour group, and discovers and buys an abandoned villa. With her own imagination and the help of an inexperienced Polish crew, which has the predictable number of construction disasters, she renovates the old villa, always hoping that some day there will be a wedding, preferably her own to the perfect man, and a family to give life to the old place.
The scenery is beautiful (of course), the vistas are endless and well-photographed, and the challenges of making the old house both livable and comfortable are never-ending. Walls falling down, a violent thunderstorm, a visiting owl, and unlimited problems with the plumbing keep the humor visual and the viewer amused. Frances's affair and the unexpected arrival of a pregnant friend from home add intrigue and keep the complications coming. A secondary Romeo-and-Juliet plot involving the teenaged daughter of one of her neighbors and the Polish teenager working on Frances's house, add "depth" to Frances's own search for romantic happiness. Ultimately, the film ends as the viewer expects it will--romantically satisfying.
The subtlety of the book, with its lovely descriptions of the countryside and its people and its sense of reality, are sacrificed here in favor of visual excitement, humor, and ongoing love stories, and Frances's (real) self-discovery becomes trite moralizing in the film, as seen in the quotation that begins this review. Diane Lane is charming as Frances, but she, nevertheless, looks older than the young men to whom she seems to be attracted, and the gay subplot involving her friends and the tour which brings her to Tuscany are extraneous (but politically correct). Highly romantic and fun to watch, this film is a disappointingly Hollywood-ized version of a thoughtful and charming memoir. Mary Whipple
Lovely film for all ages.......2006-05-26
This is the sort of film that makes you want to leave the busy and often stressful everyday living in a city and go to a small and tranquil village in southern europe. The picure is very good and the screenplay is excellent. This is a great film for people of all ages
UK DVD:
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