If Diane Lane wants to maintain the career renaissance that saw her land an Oscar nomination for Unfaithful, she should steer clear of bland chick flicks like Under The Tuscan Sun. Based on Frances Mayes' bestselling memoir, this tale of a thirtysomething divorcee who rebuilds her confidence with the help of some rundown Italian real estate will ring bells with menopausal housewives and DIY enthusiasts everywhere. But the rest of us will find little of note in a film whose cliched romanticism feels lifted from a dog-eared Mills & Boon.
Dumped by her husband for a younger model and forced to surrender half her income, San Francisco writer Frances (Diane Lane) has nothing to lose when best friend Patti (Sandra Oh) offers her a free trip to Italy. Seduced by Tuscany's sun-dappled scenery, she buys a dilapidated villa on impulse and blows the rest of her savings on its restoration. The first, and better,
half of Audrey Wells' comedy drama details this painstaking process and the gradual return of its heroine's self-esteem.
"SOMETHING STARTS TO PONG"
Around the halfway point, though, something starts to pong. Is it the industrious sweat of those nice Polish builders who miraculously turn up every day and actually do what they're being paid to do? Is it the cigarette smoke wafting from Lindsay Duncan's dotty ex-pat, still yearning for her lost youth as a Fellini extra? Or is it the aftershave worn by that smouldering Italian hunk (Raoul Bava) who whisks Frances away on his Vespa?
It could be one or all these things, but whatever it is sabotages the glimmer of truth Lane brings to this cornball concoction. The end result might shift a few units amidst the olive groves, but it hardly delivers on the promise its leading lady is finally displaying after two decades toiling down the Hollywood salt mines.
Under The Tuscan Sun (2004)
