Customer Reviews

Under the Tuscan Sun [VHS]

5 star:		(211)
4 star:		(107)
3 star:		(42)
2 star:		(37)
1 star:		(52)

 

 

What starts out as an Italian "Money Pit" with all the attendant broken pipes, crumbling walls and incompetent handymen makes a turn for the better about a third of the way through: a more emotionally centered and revealing movie,"Under the Tuscan Sun."
The luminescent Diane Lane stars as Frances, an intelligent, loving women with close and committed friends who finds herself in a situation that many people do: with a mate who has fallen out of love, wants a divorce as well as possession of a much loved and painstakingly renovated house, this one in San Francisco. After the divorce Frances goes to Tuscany on a lark, falls in love with a villa there, buys it and proceeds to renovate it. The villa then is the physical manifestation of the shedding of her old life and marriage and the hope for the renovation and rehabilitation of her love life as well as her life in general.
That she probably places too much faith in the physical to solve the emotional does not detract at all from the guts and hope that it takes to do so. And Lane is so psychically centered and open as Frances that you cannot help but be moved by her situation.
There are some silly plot lines and performances that I wish weren't, but with a central performance as attractive and genuinely loving and feminine as Lane's, "Under The Tuscan Sun" is as warm and inviting as bread just out of the oven.

I am peturbed that Amazon would spotlight two bad reviews. This was an awesome movie that kept me watching it from beginning to end. I haven't read the book, but after watching that movie, I do intend to. It's amazing how uplifting this spirited movie was. Diane Lane was supurb without coming across as trying too much. We never get to see her husband "Tom" who screwed her over royally in the divorce, which I think was a good decision. The movie stays in the present looking ahead to the future with a sense of hope and promise. Pick up this movie for an excellent movie night - even if you're not a chick!

We'll I'm not usually one to go to see comedy-romance films but my girlfriend insisted and I was persuaded by the fact that Diane Lane (one of my favorite actresses) was starring in it. Honestly, this is a very good movie. It is one of the best surprises of the year. The film is edited in a way that never makes it seem boring or long-winded and the film is very (I mean very) entertaining, with some great dialog and some excellent comedy and well-timed laughs. A few times I was uncontrollably laughing it was so funny. The acting was amazing with Diane Lane giving one of her best performances in the lead role as Frances Mayes. The film looked great and had an excellent soundtrack as well. I recommend this film very much indeed, even to guys because it isn't cliched and slushy in the same way other romantic films are. It sure makes a great date movie - Under The Tuscan Sun is a marvel!

As a man, I prefer movies with action, that usually means gratuitous violence. I can't help it; it's in the hormones. But every so often, I will allow a woman to drag me, in my own car, to a chick flick, which I will pay for, and regret the experience two gruelling hours later. I was not to be disappointed in being disappointed. Darkness couldn't come fast enough "Under the Tuscan Sun."

Diane Lane gets the unpleasant surprise of her life about her husband at a cocktail party. Her friends decide she needs to get away and send her to Italy for a little R & R. She notices a villa for sale and the old lady homeowner who is ambivalent about selling it to a wealthy German couple. Suddenly a pigeon discharges its plop on Diane's head. With such a tender and wonderful sign from above, the old lady decides to sell her home to her (presumably right after she washes her hair).

So starts her new adventure.

She has the usual run-of-the-mill problems with the house, and one of the friends who sent her on the trip in the first place, shows up pregnant. She helps a local through her love affair with a Polish construction worker, and has an affair where she cheers herself: "I still got it." (With Diane Lane that's a real tough one to believe)! But after hearing that line, you might be asking yourself: "Did somebody actually get paid for writing this?"

In the end, she finds her true love, a character who never develops because we see him inside the home through a window, and only at the end. (That way, Mr. Right doesn't even have to be listed in the credits).

The only reason I have given this two stars is because the scenary was beautiful, and every women I have met since wants to go to Tuscany. (Oh, for joy)!

The lady next to me asked me what I thought of it as the lights illuminated slowly in the little Great Neck theater. "Whoever directed this should be exiled!" I shot back like a Tuscan thunderstorm.

Those around me smiled in agreement.

Prego.



Happy Birthday, Barbara.

(Lot's of spoilers)

Yes, I know it's a romantic comedy, 'chick flick', and realism is not usually a necessary goal, but please, you must be kidding!

She enters Italy, buys a house and moves there permanently on a whim? With minimal savings (after buying a villa with an olive grove!), no income (we don't see her write or review anything in the year she is in Italy), no health coverage, nothing, and no long-stay visa, no governmental red tape?

Everyone speaks English? And learning to speak Italian just happens to her, despite only speaking with English, American and Polish expatriate friends?

The house renovation is brief and (aside from 1 or 2 comic moments) easy and apparently... free. She just cooks for her polish workman and they love her. Let's remember, she has no car and she is in rural Tuscany (wouldn't you love to see her carry home all the groceries for these feasts.)

See meets a stunning, sexy, fit, self-confidant, young, Italian man... after a few hours together, has sex with him (Don't get me wrong - looked like fun), doesn't see him again for a month, and then is surprised that, when she sees him next, he has already moved on. No, really?

As for the lesbian couple: They are committed enough to decide to have a baby (no accidents here), so try to concieve repeatedly (making reference that they were finally sucessful concieving on the 5th try) and then when one is apparently 8 months pregnant, the other decides she "isn't ready to be a mother"! What??? And the very pregnant friend flies to Tuscany, with no invitation or warning!? She doesn't speak Italian, she doesn't have a doctor in Italy... but we are to assume that her health-coverage covers giving birth in Italy! WOW! Who's her insurance company?

Yes, the scenery is beautiful, but it's Tuscany and the Amalfi Coast. Of course, it's beautiful! And, the ending was sweet and romantic. (Wow, what a suprise.)

I normally enjoy a light escape from reality, but this was just way to pointless and wildly unrealistic to be worth the effort.

I hated this dismal movie. Not completely, of course. Diane Lane, the villa, Italy and the builders are lovely, but the story is dismally surreal. First you have the divorce, then the lesbian couple, then a gay tour bus, then some promiscuous italians, then more breakups, then a nice pormiscuous fellow writer. Yuck. There is no romance in this movie - this is not romantic, it's a biological and twisted tale of some womens pre-menopausal angst and bedroom problems. And as if her bedroom problems weren't enough, we get everbody else's too. What happened to nice normal romantic comedys in the Audrey Hepburn style?

I actually spent a year studying at a small italian university, fell in love with the country, and expected to HATE this movie because I really got sick of the American presence in italy. I have to admit, though, arguing with some of the previous reviews that I saw, that despite all of the stereotypes, they were mostly true! Certainly true to my experience. Italians are proud of who and how they are and although I didn't meet a single person who spoke english as well as anyone in this film, that was the only stretch as far as I could tell. Its an absolute pleasure to watch, especially for anyone who has been to Italy. And Diane Lane is adorable and full of life, almost inspirational.

See this film if you want to escape to Italy for 2 hours and be a single, liberated, middle-aged woman going on an adventure. That's really what it is good for - transporting us americans away from our own "culture" and into a place that has a real sense of history and people.

Cheesy - but delicious.

Gentlemen miss this movie. As a married man I am consigned to the fact that I must watch certain movies that are geared towards the ladies, I am okay with that. Having suffered through most of said type of movies, I can say that this particular movie is a truly a painful experience without any humor to help. All this movie does is follow a sad and lonely woman around Italy and waste the two hours that is the movie running time. Do not buy this movie for the lady in your life because then you will be forced to watch it.

Not a good movie to watch at the theatre, but great to watch on a grey rainy wet day. Escape to Italy, and enjoy the golden countrysides. I just have one thing to point out, the point of the movie wasn't for Frances to go to Italy to find a guy and live happily ever after. It's to show how even if she wasn't with someone, she can still be happy and her life can still be filled with flavour. That's why all the potential guys in the movie entered and left the screen. Also, it just goes to show that if she can get herself out of her depression, she could enjoy life more, and eventually things will turn out fine.

This visual feast of a romantic comedy stars the lovely and earthy Diane Lane as Frances, who sets off for a Tuscan vacation after her divorce. Once there, she falls in love with the place, buys a broken-down villa, and proceeds to merrily fix it up, with the help of all the usual village stereotypes. She is longing for love and finds it, as well as peace and happiness.

This is the quintessential chick-flick about a plucky heroine who can do anything and is surrounded by loveable characters. What separates this film from the ordinary romantic comedy is Diane Lane's strong screen presence and her talent; she is utterly believable as the spunky, lusty, modern woman with stars in her eyes. The exquisite location photography could well start a boom in Tuscan tourism. Heartily recommended.