Film Review: Under the Tuscan Sun

Usually I don't review Hollywood type movies such as this, especially after talking about how Hollywood's view of romantic love has been improperly programming millions of people for years and years. So, after promising I would stop watching these types of movies, I decided to watch another one since I'm a masochist apparently. In all seriousness though I was assured this one was not your typical love story and I would appreciate it.

I did. The story is one of a lady who is an author, Diane Lane. She gets ditched by her husband for a younger broad. Convinced to take a trip to get over the shambles of her life, Diane Lane takes a trip to Italy where at the spur of the moment decides to buy a house (more like a big estate). The movie tracks her new life there as she tries to recover from her heart-break and rebuilds the house, perhaps symbolic of her trying to rebuild her life. As she searches for new love she finds a plethora of characters in the scenic little town of Tuscany who teach her about faith, healing, and manifesting your dreams. I won't ruin the ending, but she gets everything she desires, although not in the typical, syrupy Hollywood style.

Believe it or not I thought this movie was great. It had gorgeous scenery and romance which was not unbelievably over the top. More importantly, there was a re-occurring theme in this movie which was no accident by the writer - stating your desires, surrendering those desires, having faith, and following the signs. Over and over the movie was explicit about this. In fact, I have seen few movies which so explicitly discussed the law of attraction. One of my favorite quotes from the movie was the following:

"Signora, between Austria and Italy, there is a section of the Alps called the Semmering. It is an impossibly steep, very high part of the mountains. They built a train track over these Alps to connect Vienna and Venice. They built these tracks even before there was a train in existence that could make the trip. They built it because they knew some day, the train would come."

In this movie Diane had bought a house, and desperately wanted to have a marriage and a family there but she couldn't see how it would ever happen (she had no husband, and was living alone). The sales agent had told her about those train tracks indicating that you have to proceed as though what you want is going to happen - the physical manifestation of your dreams will happen with certainty. This is what The Secret referred to as "unwavering faith". Sure enough, without even realizing it, by the end of the movie, all of the protagonists dreams had been granted. What I liked about this movie was that those dreams did not happen in the way she expected they would, but they did come true nonetheless.

If I could summarize this movie, I would say it is about releasing or surrendering your desires to the universe in order to have them manifest. It is a movie of hope, that it is never too late to move on after a heart-break and find love again. But first, you must make a wish and let it come true.