Plot
While on vacation, a just-divorced writer buys a villa in Tuscany on a whim, hoping it will be the start of a change for the better in her life.
Release Year: 2003
Rating: 6.6/10 (18,030 voted)
Critic's Score: 52/100
Director:
Audrey Wells
Stars: Diane Lane, Raoul Bova, Sandra Oh
Storyline After Frances's seemingly happy San Francisco marriage ends abruptly, she goes into a funk. Urged by her friends to move on, she joins a bus tour of Tuscany where, on the spur of the moment, she buys a crumbling villa. She assembles a crew of oddballs and immigrants to repair the house; over the next year, as they work, she welcomes one of her New York friends who's pregnant and at loose ends, and she seeks love, first (tenuously) with her married real estate agent, then with a charming stranger. Although life gets in the way of love, Frances's wishes come true in unexpected ways, and there's always the Tuscan sun.
Writers: Frances Mayes, Audrey Wells
Cast: Diane Lane
-
Frances
Sandra Oh
-
Patti
Lindsay Duncan
-
Katherine
Raoul Bova
-
Marcello
Vincent Riotta
-
Martini
Mario Monicelli
-
Old Man with Flowers
Roberto Nobile
-
Placido
Anita Zagaria
-
Fiorella
Evelina Gori
-
Nona Cardinale
Giulia Steigerwalt
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Chiara
Pawel Szajda
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Pawel
Valentine Pelka
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Jerzy
Sasa Vulicevic
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Zbignew
Massimo Sarchielli
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Nino
Claudia Gerini
-
Signora Raguzzi
Taglines:
The Only Thing More Surprising Than The Chance She's Taking...Is Where It's Taking Her
Release Date: 26 September 2003
Filming Locations: Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze, Florence, Tuscany, Italy
Box Office Details
Budget: $18,000,000
(estimated)
Opening Weekend: $9,751,425
(USA)
(28 September 2003)
(1226 Screens)
Gross: $58,878,723
(Worldwide)
Technical Specs
Runtime:
Did You Know?
Trivia:
Every time a group of nuns is seen on screen, they are eating: first at the market, then sitting on a terrace and finally during the wedding.
Goofs:
Revealing mistakes:
When Frances smashes the scorpion with the boot, the scorpion remains on the wall and does not fall into her shirt (an action that forces her to jump around in her bra on the balcony).
Quotes: Patti:
Frances bought a house in Tuscany! And you're going to live there alone? Frances:
Well, I'm not there alone. I'm there with bugs. Patti:
Ew.
User Review
Diane Lane is Brighter Than the Tuscan Sun
Rating: 9/10
"Under the Tuscan Sun" is a polarizing film that seems to leave viewers (and
critics) either in love with a story of growth and renewal or dismissive of
its line. I'm firmly in the former camp.
Based so loosely on Frances Mayes's own account of her regeneration in
beautiful Italy as to carry an end credit pronouncing that substantial
fictionalization replaced key true details, writer and director Audrey Wells
crafted a stunning vehicle for Diane Lane whose radiance projects from the
screen powerfully. And in every scene.
Diane Lane, as the changed-from-the-memoir Frances, abandons San Francisco
after her never shown cad husband divorces her, getting the house she once
loved. Frances is a writer and literary critic. Why does she leave S.F.?
Two of her closest friends give her a ticket for a gay bus tour of Italy and
she jumps off the bus to look into a ramshackle old country house up for
sale. Impetuosity? Definitely. Believable? Yes, actually.
Frances' new house isn't a handyman's special, it's a contractor's assurance
of food on the table for a very long time. Frances adapts to the house and
the locals with remarkable aplomb. Tuscany is sunny but its light fades
before Frances's challenged but resilient commitment to not just restore a
house but to create a home. The two aren't the same. I'm not sure how many
male directors could so well create that reality.
Director Wells tells the story from a woman's heart but with a breadth of
humor and drama that should appeal to anyone who wants to believe, or needs
to hope, that there really is a light at the end of the tunnel of marital
infidelity and dissolution.
Supporting Diane Lane is Sandra Oh as Patti, her closest friend. In
relatively short scenes, Ms. Oh displays a lively and laconic grasp not only
of her friend's life but also of her own which is not, as they say today,
devoid of "issues."
Lindsay Duncan is Katharine, an older woman determined to hold on to her now
fading attractiveness through a blend of humor, earthiness - and alcohol.
Her character may be predictable but she's also fun.
Raoul Bova has garnered some press attention as handsome Marcello, the
romantically available and affluent Italian. That's a character we've seen
in many, many films and Bova delivers an expectedly satisfactory but hardly
deep performance.
Yes, Diane Lane is beautiful but there is much more to her acting than a
shining appearance. Her facial gestures, mirroring her emotions as they
shift from moment to moment, are the product of extraordinary acting
ability. And her character draws a powerful portrayal.
Credit also must go to cinematographer Geoffrey Simpson. Perhaps it would
be impossible for a blind camera director to turn in anything but a gorgeous
visage of rural and urban Italy but Simpson did do a marvelous job of making
the locales come alive.
This is a film for adults, for people who can understand pain and the search
for recovery and understand the difficulty of coming back from a space that
once offered the mirage of safety and security.
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