Customer Reviews
Escape - By: Bec, 12 Aug 2008 
Everytime I watch this film its as if I've been whisked off to Tuscany, it makes you feel a part of the story. A beautiful setting for a lovely story about finding happiness.
Tuscany here I come!! - By: laineyf, 09 Feb 2008 
Under the Tuscan Sun is a feel-good, lovely, sunny, friendly, & happy film.I watch it regularly with my 22 year old daughter, & we LOVE it. It is pure escapism, something that we would all love to do. Diane Lane is fabulousin it, totally believable as Frances, & 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) & totally cheer yourself up by immersing yourselfin it. I think it is how we all imagine life would be if we livedin our favourite holiday destinations, & 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! - By: Mrs. V. Jeffery, 12 Jan 2008 This is a great feel-good movie, & one to watch for an instant holiday. If you have been to Tuscany - it brings back memories, & if you have not, you want to go! Really good casting & acting throughout. Everything about the film is enjoyable. If you need hope for the futurein any undertaking, this will give it to you!
One for the ladies..... - By: R. LANGRISH, 25 Mar 2007 
... or romantics everywhere. I purchased this film primarily because I enjoyed `My Housein 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 & beautifully filmed with superb quality of picture & sound. However, I gather this is a film of the book - & I think it shows. Although, I'm sure readers will be thrilled with it's bounty of probable nods to the text & unexplained quirkiness, as someone who hasn't read the book, I found the story drifty & 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." - By: Mary Whipple, 07 Oct 2006 (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, & more obvious than the memoir. Herein the film, Frances, recovering from a devastating divorce, accepts a ten-day trip to Tuscany from two friends, leaves the tour group, & discovers & buys an abandoned villa. With her own imagination & 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, & a family to give life to the old place.
The scenery is beautiful (of course), the vistas are endless & well-photographed, & the challenges of making the old house both livable & comfortable are never-ending. Walls falling down, a violent thunderstorm, a visiting owl, & unlimited problems with the plumbing keep the humor visual & the viewer amused. Frances's affair & the unexpected arrival of a pregnant friend from home add intrigue & keep the complications coming. A secondary Romeo-and-Juliet plot involving the teenaged daughter of one of her neighbors & 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 & its people & its sense of reality, are sacrificed herein favor of visual excitement, humor, & ongoing love stories, & Frances's (real) self-discovery becomes trite moralizingin the film, as seenin 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, & the gay subplot involving her friends & the tour which brings her to Tuscany are extraneous (but politically correct). Highly romantic & fun to watch, this film is a disappointingly Hollywood-ized version of a thoughtful & charming memoir. Mary Whipple
