Under the Tuscan Sun

When I found Under the Tuscan Sun in the NonFiction section of the library, I should have known to skip this one. I've never been big on NonFiction, and the story of the renovation of a house in Italy didn't sound especially interesting. But I already had the movie on tape so I decided to give it a shot. I actually made it to the halfway mark reading every word. Frances Mayes is quite poetic in her writing, and since I just moved into an older house myself, I found the renovations somewhat interesting. But after the house was 'done', I really did no more than skim the rest of the book.

I knew the movie had to be an extreme deviation from the text - namely, it had to have a plot. Frances, divorced in the film, buys Bramasole on a whim, where in actuality she and her companion (she never really explains their relationship) searched for houses for years. The movie was pretty slow - if I had not been looking for excerpts from the book, I may have fallen asleep. The renovation, the references to religion in Italy, the Polish workers, the scorpion and snake, the driving ("red lights are just a suggestion") all are brought faithfully to the screen. The side plots of the teenage lovers and the lesbian mother are interesting, but not enough to keep the movie from dragging. The "crazy blonde" who befriends Frances is similar to a famous writer from the book, but I was never quite clear on the film version's avocation.

Overall, there were some humorous and touching moments in the movie, but I'm just as glad to be done with both versions of this title.