Under The Tuscan Sun (2003)

After Frances's (Diane Lane) seemingly happy San Francisco marriage ends abruptly, she goes into a funk. Urged by her friends to move on, she joins a bus tour of Tuscany where, on the spur of the moment, she buys a crumbling villa. She assembles a crew of oddballs and immigrants to repair the house; over the next year, as they work, hilarity ensues and she welcomes one of her New York friends (Sandra Oh) who's pregnant and at loose ends, and she seeks love, first (tenuously) with her married real estate agent, then with a charming stranger. Although life gets in the way of love, Frances's wishes come true in unexpected ways, and there's always the Tuscan sun.

Trivia: Writer/director Audrey Wells said that when she was writing the script, the only actress she thought of to play Patti was Sandra Oh. They had worked together on Guinevere (1999). The director wanted to cast actual Polish actors to play the immigrant Polish workers in the film, but couldn't due problems and delays getting work visas for the Polish actors from the Italian government. The "German couple" which tries to buy Bramasole when the main character appears on the scene has been edited into a French couple in the German dubbing of the movie. Frances and Pawel see George of the Jungle (1997), the screenplay of which was written by Audrey Wells. The uncredited character of the painter Zeus was originally fully nude. However, digital underwear was added later in post-production to avoid an R-rating. In the scene when Frances is talking to her divorce lawyer, the camera stays on Frances and we never see the lawyer. The script originally called for a longer scene with coverage of both Frances and the lawyer. Jeffery Tambor, the actor who played the lawyer, was so impressed by Diane Lane's performance that he insisted to Audrey Wells that the scene would have more emotional impact if his character remained unseen.

I think I would have liked this film if I had seen it before I went to Italy, but after the Italy trip? I loved it. It is always cool to see a film where you recognise a location and can say, "Hey! I've been there!" But how cool is it when you can say it about an Italian location like the Duomo in Florence or the Amalfi Coast which would have been beautiful on a clear day (inside joke). The film. Diane Lane was great (isn't she always?) as the American woman in the Italian villa. The story was very good in that it isn't your typical romantic comedy. It is not so much about Francis (Francesca from the Italians) finding a new love, but about her coming to realize what she really wants and her journey of rediscovery. The villa itself echos her reemergence. it starts out beautiful but run down and slowly comes to life with warmer colors and frescoes emerging from behind the paint on the walls (you don't get to see the actual revelation of the frescoes because it was a deleted scene on the DVD, which is a shame because from one scene to the other, first no fresco, then fresco seems unexplained). The water spigot on the wall is really symbolic also, first no water will come out, then it starts to drip, then by the end of the film it is flowing with water, just as Francis goes from the hardship of divorce and slowly opens back up until her love is flowing at the end. Thanks Kim, I watched this movie in payment for Kim correctly guessing my "I" movie was Inventing The Abbotts. Stay Tuned, because I owe movies to Impman, Anonymous Ken, and Kim for guessing "J".