BEFORE: Today is International Women's Day, and I happen to have something on tap that's appropriate, about a woman who moves from the U.S. to Italy, and becomes an international woman, of sorts. Well, I think it's a nice tie-in. I've been all over the world this February, via the movies anyway, I sort of started the romance chain in Europe with the "Before Sunrise/Sunset/Midnight" trilogy, which was set in Vienna, Paris and Greece, plus we were in the U.K. for "I Give It a Year", and in Ireland for parts of "P.S. I Love You", and then of course India, Bali and Italy played starring roles in "Eat Pray Love".
Now, I watched just as many films in this romance chain that were set in New York or L.A. ("The Hero") or even Oregon ("Overboard"). But since this is International Women's Day, let's close things out in Italy today, and Paris tomorrow. Diane Lane carries over from "Nights in Rodanthe", which was set in North Carolina.
FOLLOW-UP TO "A Good Year" (Movie #2,909)
THE PLOT: A writer impulsively buys a villa in Tuscany in order to change her life.
AFTER: This film predated "Eat Pray Love" by about 7 years (and also predated "A Good Year" by 3 years) so if either film copied the other, we now know which way that went. Though there's not much praying here in "Under the Tuscan Sun", but there's eating, and there's loving, so I guess two out of three ain't bad. There are other similarities, like in both cases it's a woman who works as a writer, then gets divorced and takes a financial bath as a result, but still has the money for either plane tickets around the world, or to buy the villa. In both cases, the numbers don't really add up. Frances in "Under the Tuscan Sun" also has to pay to have the villa completely renovated, that could easily equal or exceed the cost of the property itself. Funny how we never see either lead character spending any time doing any WRITING, either. How can you call yourself a writer if you never devote any time to the craft - doesn't this make them ex-writers? Maybe the old royalty checks pay for the repairs to the villa? Seems like a stretch.
You may notice that Liz in "Eat Pray Love" doesn't fall in love while she's in Italy, which kind of tracks - she's got a clear agenda, and can only find the time to do ONE thing in each city. Besides, she's not ready, coming off of two major break-ups. But Frances in "Under the Tuscan Sun" has to pack both agenda items into Italy - she's ready for love. Well, actually she's not really ready, but she feels ready, and it's probably hard for her to tell the difference. Note that just because the romantic dialogue between an American woman and an Italian man FEELS corny and stereotypical, just because you reference the fact that their dialogue seems corny and stereotypical, that doesn't absolve the dialogue from being corny and stereotypical. Just so we're clear on this point.
Frances also becomes friends with her neighbor, who owns an olive orchard next door, and three Polish immigrants who are hired to renovate her villa. Then her pregnant lesbian best friend flies in from San Francisco after a break-up, and they all form this cozy weird little network of psuedo-family. The whole sub-plot with the lesbian best friend was very confusing to me, because Frances made a reference to becoming an aunt, so naturally I assumed that the best friend's partner was Frances's sister, and apparently that wasn't true at all. I guess she meant "aunt" instead of aunt? Anyway, the whole reason Frances went to Italy was because Patti was in the first trimester and didn't want to fly on a plane, but then why is it medically OK for her to fly to Italy later in the pregnancy? I thought that sort of thing got more risky as a pregnancy came closer to term, not less risky. Possible NITPICK POINT, but I'm not an expert on these things. (I just checked, apparently the middle of a pregnancy is the safest time to travel, but considering any risk of blood clots or other complications, I'd nix air travel altogether, just to be safe.)
What I appreciate here is that buying the Tuscan villa isn't the solution to Frances' problems, as one might expect from a typical Hollywood romance film. In many ways it's the start of a whole new set of problems - but it's nice that there are no quick solutions to feeling better and getting ready for a new relationship down the road, while at the same time, progress is definitely being made, though maybe not in the way that was originally planned.
Also starring Sandra Oh (last seen in "The Red Violin"), Lindsay Duncan (last seen in "Gifted"), Raoul Bova, Vincent Riotta, Mario Monicelli, Roberto Nobile, Evelina Gori, Kate Walsh (last seen in "The Perks of Being a Wallflower"), Pawel Szajda, David Sutcliffe, Jeffrey Tambor (last seen in "The Accountant"), Giulia Steigerwalt, Valentine Pelka, Sasa Vulicevic, Massimo Sarchielli, Claudia Gerini, Laura Pestellini, Don McManus (last seen in "Vice"), Matt Salinger, Elden Henson (last seen in "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2"), Jack Kehler (last seen in "Love Liza"), Kristoffer Ryan Winters, Nuccio Siano, Malva Guicheney, Dan Bucatinsky (last seen in "The Post").
RATING: 5 out of 10 nuns eating gelato
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