Under the Tuscan Sun (PG-13)
Not much for teens in this book adaptation.
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Seen the movie?
Movie details
- Studio: Touchstone Pictures
- Directed By: Audrey Wells
- Cast: Diane Lane
- Running Time: 113 minutes
- Release Date: 9/26/2003
- Video/DVD Release Date: 2/3/2004
- Genre: Drama
- MPAA Rating: PG-13
- MPAA Explanation: sexual content and language
Parents need to know
Parents need to know that this movie has some strong language for a PG-13. There are sexual references and situations, including a sexual encounter between two people who barely know each other -- portrayed as deeply romantic and healing -- and a sexually active young couple. Another character is happily promiscuous. Mayes' husband leaves her for another woman. The movie does a good job of avoiding stereotypes with a gay Asian character.
Families can talk about all of the advice that Mayes gets and what she learns from it.
Families can talk about all of the advice that Mayes gets and what she learns from it.
Message
Social Behavior:
Strong female and minority characters.
Consumerism:
Drugs/Alcohol/Tobacco:
Frequent social drinking.
Violence
Difficult emotional complications.
Sex
Sexual references and situations, gay characters.
Language
Some strong language for a PG-13.
Common Sense says
What's the story?
Reviewed by Nell Minow
After her divorce, Frances Mayes (Diane Lane) agrees to take a tour of Tuscany when her best friend Patti (Sandra Oh) buys her a ticket. Frances isn't looking for romantic entanglements. But she ends up with an entanglement of a different kind, impulsively buying an ancient house called Bramasole, which translates into "yearning for the sun." And yes, it is Frances who is yearning for the sun, and yes, the renovation of the house is a metaphor for renovating her spirits. On this emotional journey, she will meet kind souls who will impart life lessons. A free-spirited Englishwoman, a kind local realtor, and three Polish construction workers help her get ready to enter back into life again, and a charming Italian man helps her begin by reminding her that she is capable of loving and being loved. Frances makes a wish for a wedding and a family in the house and when at first it seems that the wedding and the family are not the ones she wished for, she begins to understand that they really are just what she wanted. And she learns that she can help others who yearn for the sun, healing herself at the same time.
Is it any good?
Like the crumbling Italian villa at the center of this story, there is a lot wrong with UNDER THE TUSCAN SUN, but it is so enticing -- especially for its intended audience -- that it is hard to resist. The best-selling book by Frances Mayes about her restoration of a crumbling villa is beautifully written and wonderfully evocative, but it does not have much of a story. So writer/director Audrey Wells has taken the real Mayes, and thrown a lot of plot at her.
The problem is that director/screenwriter Wells tells us a lot more than she shows us. She seems to have no understanding of how to translate a story into film. The movie often seems abrupt and unfinished and the characters are superficially drawn. The script tells us how the characters feel about each other but does not make it matter enough for us to believe in or care about the way their relationships are resolved. Lane brings as much to the material as is humanly possible, but is given little to do beyond looking wistful and wounded. But it is all beguilingly pretty to watch and its message of hope and second chances is beguilingly pretty, too.
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