Rating: 
Summary: Bridges and ceilings
Review: As the glass ceilings disappear, the sun shines every brightly. Congratulations to the women and men who shine under the Tuscan sun. There are many wonderful moments in this empathetic, loving film. The characters are drawn together by a series of seemingly individual hardships (divorce, single parenthood, government supression, poverty, refugee status, materialism, prejudice, depression...the list can go on). Their involvement in the refurbishment of an historic villa (honor the past and serve the needs of the present?) allows us to see their common humanity and presents us with whole people, not charicatures.
Many have acknowledged Diane Lane's fine performance here. I found truth in each character and in myself the ability to empathize freely with each one. The director/writer/everything created a tour de force opportunity for every actor in this film and I believed each one of them. Just for myself- special thanks to Sandra Oh from a fellow 2nd generation Korean. Aloha and enjoy the warm sun of this movie. It shines on anyone who would step out of the shade.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful, sexy, funny and enjoyable! Great film!
Review: Diane Lane gives an Oscar worthy performance in this beautiful film. The film is funny, sexy, stunningly beautiful, entertaining and enjoyable. This is the real-deal... a great allround movie! Highly recommended! 5 stars!
Rating: 
Summary: Beautiful Landscapes with Cute Story
Review: This film, about a suddenly divorced woman, is a modern film, in the sense it includes a few "politically correct" topics. They could have been omitted and had this been the case, I would have given it 5 stars. Even with the PC topics, it is an amusing, down-right funny film and a great way to see the landscapes of Tuscany. Starting a new life in Italy, on a whim, a spur of the moment decision ...to escape, escape to another country, escape anywhere, is a fantasy, no doubt, many people who get a divorce may have. The amusing adventures of living in another country and recovering one's sense of balance in life is the well developed topic of this film. When the tour bus stops, our heroine sees an old home for sale in real estate office window.
When the tour bus passes the home ... she asks the bus driver to stop. She enters the house and discovers a young European couple negotiating for the sale of the house with the owner, a widow and her solicitor. Everytime the European couple offer a bid, the widow raises the price of the house. Our divorcee makes an offer ... the widow accepts it. The Europeann couple stalk off, complaining about how the rich Americans want to own everything.
Our divorcee, must admit to the widow, she can not afford the price she agreed to. The widow shakes her head, sadly, "no". The widow says, before she can sell the house she must have a sign.
In flies a bird ... and leaves a parting gift on our divorcees .. head. The widow is happy and smiles ... that is the sign. It only gets better from there ... a funny film, reminds me of the 1950 and 1960 film sof the past. Erika Borsos (erikab93)
Rating: 
Summary: OK if you owe your wife a date-night
Review: I will echo another reviewer and hang the "chick flick" tag on this film. In my opinion, Under the Tuscan Sun certainly fits into that category. Before some will dismiss me as an old fashioned chauvinist I will say that I have taken my wife to other "chick flicks" that turned out to be pleasant surprises, e.g., Sleepless in Seattle, or even Kate & Leopold. I cannot imagine very many people will be able to identify with a literary critic woman who gets bagged by her creep husband, whose lesbian friends commiserate with her on her new misfortunes and then buys a villa in Italy. In my opinion, and I am entitled to one, there is only one redeeming quality with this movie and it is this: It could be useful in selling air tickets to Italy. Guys if you owe your special lady a date-night then maybe this will fit the bill... just plan on catching up on some rest as this movie does really drag on in several places. -- K.K. Dunn, Kansas City
Rating:
Summary: Completely Satisfying
Review: The scenery alone is reason to spend your evening with this movie. Tuscany, Rome, Naples... The ability to see things about life that might not look exactly like you expected but are exactly what you hoped for was a great lesson. I want to sit down and eat one of Frances' meals! Wow, this was a fulfilling movie!
Rating:
Summary: A gorgeous film that is so incredibly beautiful to watch!
Review: I was so surprised at just how good this film was. I had heard good things about it and had seen the positive reviews. I also thought that Diane Lane was a great actress. But this movie is a small wonder. It is a gorgeous film that is so beautiful and inspiring to watch. A beautiful, lovely and very funny film!
Rating:
Summary: A True Inspiration!
Review: From the beginning of the picture, Diane Lane was charming and intriguing. She made every emotion seem so real, and carried us throughout the story. The writing, the editing, and the cast combined, created an amazing and inspiring film. Nothing was too predictable, yet the story never took us where we weren't excited to go, thanks to brilliant acting and filming. If the story itself wasn't inspiring enough of life, love, and inner strength portraid by many of the characters, the scenery of Italy captured in the movie left us breathless and over the top. In the end, we knew it was over, but still hoped for more. We just couldn't get enough of Diane Lane!
After leaving, I was inspired about my own life and, after weeks, have still been unable to forget every moment. FIVE STARS PLUS!!!
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful romantic film about planning for a dream
Review: Following a divorce in which she loses her shirt due to California's community property laws, Frances Mayes, an author and book reviewer, goes on a trip to Cortona, Italy, where she ends up buying Bramasole, an ancient villa from a countess and sets about rebuilding the ruins of her life amid the beautiful countryside. Her thoughts are voiced through a voiceover narrative, in which her wry wit comes through. Much of her interractions come through with the restoration of the villa, which she decides to undergo after a fierce thunderstorm on her first evening there. The repair work undergone there presents some comic moments, as well as triumphant ones. There are three Polish workers she enlists, one into books, one who is clearly smitten by her, and Pavel, a blonde youth who falls for Chiara, the daughter of the family next door. Frances befriends Pavel, even to the point of sticking up for him when Chiara's parents find out about their the young couple's liaison. Then there's her friend Patty, an Oriental lesbian who's very pregnant and is planning to raise the baby with her partner. She is the sole representative of her earlier life, and her appearance in the villa signifies that one can't completely break away from one's roots. That concept is also demonstrated by an old man who keeps putting flowers at a stone shrine across her. She waves at him but he refuses to return her gesture, merely staring at her with his sad, broken-hearted face which, like Frances, made me wonder what his story was. However, the most interesting one is Katherine, a blonde English expatriot dressed in black, with a penchant for wide brimmed hats and eating ice-cream cones. She is a direct contrast to Frances, savouring life, even modelling semi-nude for an Italian studmuffin named Zeus. Two ideas come through in this movie. One is something that Katherine tells Frances, never to lose your childhood innocence, something told her long ago by Fifi, a.k.a. Federico Fellini. There's a nod to Silvia's fountain scene from La Dolce Vita involving her. The other is things falling into place even though the circumstances aren't right. In a moment of unsurety, Frances's wish to one day have a family and wedding in a villa she wonders if she should have bought, is given an analogy by Martini, her real estate agent, who tells her of a railway build between the place and Vienna even there were no trains built in Italy. Eventually, the trains were built and were ready for the railway. Still another analogy is the story Katherine tells of hunting high and low for ladybugs. Tired, she fell asleep on the grass, and upon waking up, found herself covered with them. The scenery is a panoply of beauty, be it the sparkling blue Mediterranean, the fields of red flowers, or the white-columned buildings in the city. Diane Lane is a marvel as Frances, expressive in moments of hurt, doubt, and of course sheer joy, especially when she scores for the first time since her divorce. She even has a nice bemused laugh that charmed me, and her playing a character I wanted to root for through her trials. And she looks stunning in that white dress. I see a Best Actress nomination here. However, Lindsay Duncan steals the movie as Katherine, and despite her limited screen time, is certainly a character to watch. Best Supporting Actress maybe? And Vincent Riotta lends strong support as the reserved but sympathetic Martini. Movies comparable to this include A Room With A View and Enchanted April, on finding oneself and following one's dreams even in the face of emotional disaster, so don't automatically stick this with the "chick flick" label.
So glad I went to see this the day before it left my local theatre!
Rating:
Summary: A very sexy and entertaining film! 5 stars!
Review: A very sexy and entertaining film. Sure, this film is heartwarming and inspiring. It is also funny and pleasant. BUT it is also sexy, very sexy infact! And it is very enjoyable and entertaining. 5 stars!
Rating:
Summary: A Dissent from the Popular View
Review: I'd call this a "chick flick," but that's insulting to women on at least two levels -- the term and to suggest that women as a group would find this collection of hoary cinematic cliches the least bit interesting. The true stars of the movie are the Italian countryside, wonderfully photographed in all seasons, and the house, but basically this is one of those Home and Garden TV fixer upper shows with a multi-million dollar budget. Diane Lane is supposed to be a tough, unsentimental reviewer whose barbed jibes stay with authors for years. This hardly tracks with her character, who immediately falls for any pretty, vacant, younger male face who wanders into her field of vision, and then is shocked, SHOCKED (Casablanca-style) when she turns out to be a mere dalliance for him. Also from the cliche mill -- the plucky lesbian, Asian for diversity interest, who has been abandoned mid-pregnancy by her lover and heads off to Tuscany to have her baby (Sandra Oh does get the one really funny line in the movie, however, when a toilet bubbles over with hot water and she observes that it's really useful if you want to "give your butt a facial."); the handsome middle-aged Italian who has "never cheated on my wife," but always turns up without her and with sage advice; and finally the old, eccentric Englishwoman, long-time resident of the town who is fond of nuzzling ducklings against her cheek in the farmers' market (Lane's character finds this fascinating), poses nude for her younger painter lovers, and dances drunk in fountains like a Fellini character. To all of this many others reviewing here apparently say "terrific." This dissenting view says, "Ugh."
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