Happy New Year! Support your favorite stubbornly independent film critic in 2024 by becoming a paying Substack subscriber. Now 50% off your first year. Upgrade to paid by January 31st to get this deal. Cheap!
For the next few days, I’ll help you blunt the January blues with movies that give off positive vibes about new beginnings and fresh starts.
Today: 2003’s Under the Tuscan Sun. When Diane Lane’s San Francisco writer gets blindsided by the utterly unexpected collapse of her marriage, she heads off to Italy for a restorative vacation… only to buy a fixer-upper villa on a lark and stay in Tuscany to spend a year renovating it. The financial fantasy of it all aside, this is a wonderfully down-to-earth tale of a woman realistic enough for us mere mortals to recognize ourselves in her. Lane’s grounded dignity creates a plausible and overwhelming emotional core to the delicate brick-by-brick creation of her new life. The movie’s happy optimism, fields of sunflowers, and fabulous food are a welcome distraction from January, too.
US: rent/buy on Prime and Apple TV
UK: stream on Disney+; rent/buy on Prime and Apple TV
See Under the Tuscan Sun at Letterboxd for more viewing options.
