Movie · 2003 · Romance, Comedy · 1h 53m · PG-13 · English
Curator score: 1.7/10 (65.6K ratings)
Life offers you a thousand chances ... all you have to do is take one.
Overview
Frances Mayes, a 35-year-old professor and writer from San Francisco, decides to take a tour of Tuscany following a difficult divorce. After impulsively buying a run-down villa in the Italian countryside, she begins to piece her life back together in unexpected ways.
Ratings
Curator score: 1.7/10
IMDb: 6.8/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 62%
Metacritic: 52
TMDB: 6.9/10
Director
Audrey Wells
Production
Touchstone Pictures, Timnick Films, Blue Gardenia Productions
Cast
Diane Lane, Lindsay Duncan, Vincent Riotta, Giulia Louise Steigerwalt, Raoul Bova, Sandra Oh, Pawel Szajda, Roberto Nobile, Anita Zagaria, Evelina Gori, Kate Walsh, Valentine Pelka, Saša Vulićević, Claudia Gerini, Mario Monicelli, Massimo Sarchielli, Geoffrey Rivas, Sean Kaplan, Nuccio Siano, David Sutcliffe
Curator Review
Verdict
A pleasant, emotionally restorative escape with strong star appeal and lush Italian scenery, but it leans heavily on wish-fulfillment and familiar self-discovery beats. It works best as a comfort watch rather than a sharp or surprising romantic comedy.
Best for
viewers in the mood for a healing post-breakup story
fans of sun-drenched travel fantasy and villa-renovation escapism
audiences who like warm, female-centered ensemble stories
people who enjoy low-stakes romance with a sentimental finish
Skip if
you want a more original or psychologically complex divorce story
you dislike glossy, idealized depictions of Europe
you need a comedy with a stronger joke density
you prefer romance that feels messy, modern, or edgy
Overview
Under the Tuscan Sun is a soft-focus reinvention fantasy: grief, divorce, and loneliness are translated into olive groves, stone walls, and the promise that a new life can be built from scratch. Diane Lane gives the movie its emotional credibility, grounding the wish fulfillment in something more vulnerable than the premise suggests.
Worth noting
The film is at its best when it settles into atmosphere and small acts of repair, both literal and emotional. It has a generous, feminine point of view and a sincere belief in friendship, community, and the dignity of starting over, even if the screenplay often reaches for obvious beats.
Bottom line
As a romance-comedy, it is gentler than funny and more comforting than incisive. If you want a cinematic hug with beautiful scenery and a hopeful aftertaste, it delivers; if you want sharper writing or more complicated emotional stakes, it may feel a little too polished.
Top Letterboxd reviews
sam (3★) · 2609 likes
an aesthetically pleasing 2003 fusion of “call me by your name” and “the lizzie mcguire movie” for the middle aged divorcée in all of us
Merkin Muffley (4★) · 2224 likes
Honestly a deceptively conventional movie that is actually a radical movie about alternative family structures
dani✨ (3★) · 1864 likes
damn well if i ever get divorced i'll haul my ass to italy
drucilla (5★) · 1849 likes
A movie by women for women about women unapologetically being women, I LOVE IT!!!
🤠 · 1158 likes
gasped so loud and yelled “CHRISTOPHER” at the end and that’s when I realized that Gilmore Girls owns my ass