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A Buena Vista release. Written and directed by Audrey Wells; starring Diane Lane and Sandra Oh. Released to DVD on February 3, 2004.  One of the most appealing facets of books, fiction or not, is their ability to smoothly go off on a number of tangents and, in doing so, delve more deeply into the topics that are pertinent to understanding the overall focus of the work. In a 300-page book, no one thinks twice about new characters that enter the plot half way through, or how the narrator includes recipes or construction tips as part of her story, as author Frances Mayes did in her best-selling autobiography, Under the Tuscan Sun. The free-spiritedness and sense of excitement surrounding the preparation of food and do-it-yourself home restoration that Mayes instilled in Under the Tuscan Sun were two of the books most tantalizing features. Translating this style of prose to the silver screen as it was written would prove to be impossible for almost all feature film directors (though I'm sure some might argue that Terry Gilliam wouldn't have a huge problem putting instructions for making sun-dried tomato sauce in the middle of some of his movies). Realizing that a reasonable facsimile of the prose in Under the Tuscan Sun would never work on film, writer/director Audrey Wells scrapped the majority of source material and added her own more conventional (read formulaic) plot line and structure to the project. The result is a combination of the deep and loving regard for the characters and minutia of life in Italy that Mayes had in the book with a shockingly stereotypical and anti-climactic examination of one American woman's reawakening in Europe. Diane Lane stars in Under the Tuscan Sun as Frances. Divorced and depressed, Frances' two best friends buy her a ticket to go and tour Tuscany, Italy. During the tour, something comes over the usually conservative Frances and she impulsively buys a crumbling villa in the Italian countryside. As her restoration of the villa takes shape, Frances slowly begins to become part of the community, learning about herself and love along the way. Lane is performs well in Under the Tuscan Sun--strong female characters are her forte. It's just a shame that in order to show how far Frances' character came, Wells made the choice to make her very weak and helpless at the beginning of the movie; during a thunderstorm one night, Frances dives under the covers of her bed, scared.  Obviously made with a female audience in mind (the mood of the project is that "a woman can do anything she puts her mind too, without any help from a man"), Under the Tuscan Sun is a work that may have stood on its own two feet had its writer/director not felt it necessary to tell the viewers how they were supposed to be feeling at all times throughout the film. Whether through blatant music cues, depressing violin music, rain during certain scenes or even actions that have been seen hundreds of times before, Wells rams the emotion of the movie down the audience throats at all time. Bereft of the subtly and the slow-paced love-of-life passion that enraptured the many readers of Mayes' book, Under the Tuscan Sun is the perfect example of what happens when Hollywood tries to tell a new story using the same old formula.
jackson casey yes, it's true: Diane Lane once played the role of "Little Britches" in the movie Cattle Annie and Little Britches . |
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