Under the Tuscan Sun
Buena Vista Pictures | Release Date: September 26, 2003 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
52
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 35 Critic Reviews
Positive:
12
Mixed:
20
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
Film ThreatMark Sells
A charming, highly entertaining romantic adventure full of life, spectacular vistas, and sensual delight. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterSheri Linden
All elements click in "Sun," a shimmering, deeply felt film. Read full review
80
Washington PostDesson Thomson
The cliches are obscured by the sheer fun of it all.
75
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
The whole movie is at once formulaic, clichéd and predictable, yet surprising, engaging and filled with subtle, unexpected details. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
Movie and book both are delightful, but very, very different. Read full review
75
USA TodayStaff (Not Credited)
A fun movie to sit through even when you don't always buy it. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy Burr
You come away enchanted less by the character than by the woman playing her. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
What redeems the film is its successful escapism, and Lane's performance. They are closely linked. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
Chalk it all up to prettiness, if you like, but Lane's case has more to do with spirit -- with warmth and emotional readiness, plus a kind of open-book quality that makes her both lovely and comical, usually at the same time. Read full review
67
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
Diane Lane overplays many scenes, she tries way too hard to be ingratiating and, in many other ways, it's one of the least of her performances. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
This is a beautifully shot motion picture, and there's no doubt that the lush scenery upstages the actors. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
While both the scenery and star Diane Lane are highly watchable, the movie is pure froth, a plate-sized helping of zabaglione. Read full review
60
The New YorkerDavid Denby
This movie, though perfectly pleasant, does not have a great script.
60
VarietyRonnie Scheib
Lane transforms this seriocomic saga of a devastated American divorcee who impulsively purchases a Tuscan villa, thereby changing her life, into a spellbinding display of emotional transparency. Read full review
60
L.A. WeeklyHazel-Dawn Dumpert
The movie is not without charm or humor, but it leaves little for Lane to do besides chuckle at setbacks as if they were naughty children. Read full review
60
SlateDavid Edelstein
The movie is sweet but deeply suspect: It's like "Lost Horizon" re-imagined by a realtor. Read full review
58
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
The author was able to compensate for the book's plotlessness by contemplating other people leading full lives quite as important as hers. In Wells' movie adaptation, even the birth of a friend's baby becomes all about Frances and the play of emotions on Lane's busy, beautiful face. Read full review
58
Portland OregonianKim Morgan
Does at least come bearing two gifts: the rolling beauty of Tuscany and the understated elegance of actress Diane Lane. The rest of the film is fit fodder for the Oxygen Network. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
Writer-director Audrey Wells never aims higher than postcard filmmaking, and Under The Tuscan Sun at least works on that level, by casting its little operetta of self-realization and remodeling travails against some of the most beautiful scenery in the world. Read full review
50
Dallas ObserverBill Gallo
The dumbed-down movie version of Frances Mayes' best-selling travel memoir Under the Tuscan Sun is a virtual case study of Hollywood's irrepressible urge to lower the bar in the hopes of upping the take. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesManohla Dargis
It's a pleasure to watch Lane's delicately lived-in face tremble with feeling -- it's the truest thing in the movie -- but the character's desperation feels wrong, the worst kind of sellout. Read full review
50
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
The story of self-discovery through which the writer and director Audrey Wells leads Frances is eminently superficial, although Ms. Wells keeps the movie going with a steady, commanding hand and casts it with an actress who can deftly downshift from serene to sodden. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMark Caro
Most definitely a chick flick. Read full review
50
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Just soak up that Tuscan sun and wonder when Lane will get another movie, like "Unfaithful" or "A Walk on the Moon," that will let her really shine. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
Rises only slightly above the level of a Harlequin romance. Read full review
50
New York PostLou Lumenick
The emotional honesty of [Lane's] performance provides a foundation that supports this shaky and often unbelievable Italian-set hybrid of "Shirley Valentine" and "Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House." Read full review
50
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
Lane...is as stunning and changeable as that Tuscan countryside. Without her, this movie would be irksome, pandering as it does to stereotypes, including that of the American woman who goes abroad for easy sex with limpid-eyed hunks. Read full review
50
PremiereLaine Ewen
An uneven love story but a picture-perfect love letter to Italy. Read full review
40
SalonStephanie Zacharek
The movie has some sex in it, and yet it's as unsexy as a rusty old olive oil can (minus the olive oil). Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleMarrit Ingman
My cynical half hated it, despite the presence of Lane, who is so magnetic that she could prance around the countryside in the absence of plot and still be compelling somehow. Read full review
40
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
Rather than converting messy, real-life experience into slick, formulaic entertainment, Well's script transforms it into a shapeless, internally inconsistent mess of artificial contrivances. Read full review
40
EmpireJoe Berry
Packed with more clichés than a pizza has pepperoni slices, this is truly disappointing, especially after Lane’s stunning performance in "Unfaithful." Read full review
30
Washington PostStephen Hunter
It's like a music video of Helen Reddy's "I Am Woman" filmed in the Chevy Chase Pottery Barn. Read full review
30
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
Unforeseeably bad things can happen to good performers. Read full review
30
Village VoiceAnya Kamenetz
Only Sandra Oh, as the wisecracking lesbian Asian pregnant best friend, provides a bright spot. Get this sidekick her own sitcom! Read full review
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