MOVIE REVIEW

Under the Tuscan Sun  (2003)

Starring: Diane Lane, Raoul Bova, Sandra Oh
Director: Audrey Wells

Rating: PG-13

Studio: Touchstone

Release Date: 9.26.03

Review Posted: 9.26.03

Spoilers: Minor

By Sara M. Fetters

Lane Shines Brighter Than a "Tuscan Sun"

When I was little, my Mom took me to movies all the time – almost every weekend. There was a local theater that tended to play Disney films like “Gus,” “The Apple Dumpling Gang” and “The Shaggy D.A.” on a regular basis, interrupting that fare with other family films like “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory” or “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.”

It was then I saw the movie “A Little Romance” with the great Laurence Olivier and, in her feature debut, a very young Diane Lane. Too be honest, I was three at the time, so I don’t remember too much about it. I just recall how splendid I thought it was, especially the relationship between the two budding lovers (Lane and Thelonious Bernard) and Olivier. But most of all, I remember Lane; the way she smiled, the way she talked, they way she just held herself so beautifully; and couldn’t help but think that this was exactly the type of young woman I wanted to grow to be.

Years later, and having seen the movie a couple of times since, I’m able to stand back a little and see how much my interpretations were clouded by my own childish longings. As a young kid, all you care about is if the movie keeps your attention and leaves you smiling, and “A Little Romance” did that in spades. And, even though the adult side of me can now stand back and see how thin and somewhat flaccid the whole picture is, I still look at Lane in awe; her youthful exuberance and openness towards life’s lessons of the heart near contagious.

Since then, however, Lane’s career has been agonizingly hit and miss. Whether starring with Kenny Rogers in the astonishingly inept 1982’s “Six Pack” or striking out spectacularly with Sylvester Stallone in 1995’s disastrous comic book fantasy “Judge Dredd,” the talented and beautiful actress has managed to find herself inside some of the worst dogs ever put to film. Not counting her brief stint working with Francis Ford Coppola in his S.E. Hinton adaptations “Rumble Fish” and “The Outsiders,” not to mention the director’s unfocused but occasionally brilliant jazz tale “The Cotton Club,” Diane Lane looked sure to be forever known as another beauteous and talented actress left sitting atop the Hollywood trash pile.

All that started to change with 1999’s “A Walk On the Moon,” a small period drama that earned the actress an Independent Film Spirit nomination for Best Actress. From there, bit parts in monster hit productions like “The Perfect Storm” got her back on the studio watch list, while Adrian Lyne’s casting of her in last year’s infidelity thriller “Unfaithful” catapulted the actor to a well-deserved Oscar nomination. And while she may have lost the award to Nicole Kidman by a – well – nose, the actress’ career in Hollywood has never been hotter.

Now she’s headlining writer/director Audrey Wells (“Guinevere”) loose and mostly fictionalized adaptation of Francis Mayes best selling memoir “Under the Tuscan Sun.” Required to be in almost every scene from beginning to end and with a script that requires her to go from high drama to low comedy to everything in between, the movie is rests entirely upon Lane’s gorgeously rounded shoulders. And while the movie gets a bit too cute and cloying at times, especially when it dips into tired sentimentality, Lane carries it all marvelously, lighting up the screen with one of the year’s best performances.

Frances (Lane) is a renowned writer and literary critic taking her time finishing her latest book. She’s got great friends, a job she loves and a doting husband. In many ways, it’s the perfect life; she gets to keep her own hours and set her own deadlines, and only those she wants around her are in her company; but things are not always what they seem. Like a punch to the gut, Frances learns second hand that her husband is having a torrid affair and is starting to make plans to leave her.

The divorce leaves her devastated emotionally. Even though she’s gotten a large sum of cash in the settlement and still has her work, the writer is sure that, in her mid-thirties, she’ll never find love again. Her best friend, Patti (Sandra Oh, “Full Frontal,” “The Princess Diaries”), worrying that Frances will spend the rest of her life holed-up in a meager one-room apartment, forces a ticket to Tuscany on the writer, sure the time away from home will help her friend find the lust for life she seems to have misplaced.

To the surprise of everyone including herself, Frances not only starts to enjoy her time in Tuscany, but also makes a spur of the moment decision to buy a rustic run-down villa and live there. She’s not exactly sure why she’s doing it, she just knows it needs to be done, and through the fixing up of the house maybe she’ll find away to also patch her windswept soul as well. Soon, she’s got a motley crew of Polish contractors fixing the house, all the while she’s slowly making friends with the local gentry. And when she finally gets to the point where it all starts to feel like home and romance just may be the furthest thing from her mind, goodness knows that is exactly when it might decide to just sneak up and find her.

“Under the Tuscan Sun” has a surprising depth and warmth the poorly constructed trailers fail to show. More than just a cute romantic comedy set in the beautiful Italian countryside, this is a movie about emotional rebirth; about finding your heart and space in the world sometimes in the places you least expect it. Frances doesn’t know why she buys the villa, just that she knows she must; yet it is that very decision that ends up being the catalyst to restoring her fragile spirit.

Still, there is much about the movie that didn’t sit all that well with me. Wells fills her film with moments of whimsy and slapstick that are out of place, and one major character – the unhinged British expatriate Katherine (Lindsay Duncan, “An Ideal Husband”), prone to Fellini-esque flights of fancy – is just plain ill-conceived. She’s supposed to be a mysterious, magical presence that kicks Frances into high gear, and while she’s fun to look at it and admire – her first scene is a true joy – as a character Katherine is just plain sad. She’s a feeble device to get a our heroine going, Frances’ intelligence and dynamic nature diluted by having to act like a sourpuss around this supposed emancipated free-as-a-bird woman.

The other supporting players are much fare much better. Raoul Bova (“The Nymph”) is a smolderingly sexy presence as Frances’ would-be lover Marcello, their first flirtatious dialogue meaty and full of adult passion reminiscent of some of the better repartee manifested in Wells’ classic script for “The Truth About Cats & Dogs.” Veteran Italian star Vincent Riotta (“Captain Corelli’s Mandolin”) also turns in sublime support, while newcomers Pawel Szadja and Giulia Steigerwalt shine as young lovers reminiscent of the very same type of couple Lane herself was a part of in “A Little Romance” almost 25 years ago. Even veteran character actor Oh gets some good licks in, the best friend poignantly returning to the story around the half way point to shake things up and move the film in unexpected directions.

But, in the end, “Under the Tuscan Sun” is Lane’s showcase. Her Frances is one of the most multifaceted female characters to take the screen this year. Adult, intelligent, yet clinging to notions of romance and love of more youthful days, the actress builds upon last year’s triumphant performance in “Unfaithful” by going into corners of the psyche few actors dare to tread. It’s a daring, funny, touching and ultimately moving portrayal, and crystallizes the fact this talented actress is one of the best working in Hollywood today.

When I was three, Diane Lane showed me just the type of young adult I hoped I could be. Now, almost a quarter of a century later, she once more has me dreaming of just the type of passionately intelligent woman I know I can become.

Rating: êêê  (out of 4)

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