'Tuscan Sun' tries too hard to please

It seems to be a sure-fire formula for a women's picture -- the one about the lonely or naive or frigid young heroine from some rainy northern clime who serendipitously journeys to Italy and unexpectedly finds true love and peace of mind and herself.

MOVIE REVIEW

UNDER THE TUSCAN SUN

DIRECTOR: Audrey Wells

CAST: Diane Lane, Sandra Oh, Vincent Riotta, Raoul Bova

RUNNING TIME: 113 minutes

RATING: PG-13 for sexual content and language

WHERE: Alderwood 7, Cinema 17, Everett 9, Factoria, Galleria 11, Guild 45th, Longston Place 14, Marysville Cinema 14, Mountlake 9, Oak Tree, Pacific Place, Parkway Plaza 12, Redmond Town Center, Renton Village, Woodinville 12

GRADE: B-

It worked for Katharine Hepburn in "Summertime." It worked for Gidget in "Gidget Goes to Rome" and Suzanne Pleshette in "Rome Adventure," and a whole crew of women in "Enchanted April." It even worked for Hilary Duff a few weeks back in "The Lizzie McGuire Movie."

And it more or less works for Diane Lane in "Under the Tuscan Sun" even though, given her unique gifts as an actress, the budget involved and the intensity with which it's being ballyhooed, it certainly should have been a better movie.

It's based on a best-selling memoir of the same name by Frances Mayes, but that's kind of like saying Bugs Bunny is based on "Harper's Book of Hares." Near as I can tell, the only thing the two have in common is the title, the character's name and an Italian setting.

The Frances Mayes of this movie (Lane) is a vulnerable thirtysomething San Francisco book reviewer who is given a free spot on a gay tour of Italy by her pregnant lesbian best friend (Sandra Oh) as therapy for her recent, very traumatic divorce.

Once there, the golden light of Tuscany works its magical spell, she impulsively buys herself a crumbling villa and -- after a few Mr. Blandings situations with this uncooperative dream house and a romantic misstep or two -- she gets on the Italian healing express.

Along the way, we meet a gallery of colorful and likably eccentric characters, take in miles of gorgeous scenery and chuckle through a succession of culture-clash situations. It's all played very light and totally calculated to please the audience.

But its superficiality is finally annoying, it says nothing new or profound about the Italian mystique and writer-director Audrey Wells (who wrote "George of the Jungle") never raises the humor above a sitcom-cute level. (In fact, the film plays like a pilot for a TV series.)

It's great to have Diane Lane finally top-billing a movie by herself. She may be the best actress of her generation (and the only one who actually tries to look her age -- 38). After 24 years of trying, she certainly deserves a big, breakthrough hit.

But it will be ironic if this follow-up to her Oscar-nomination in last year's "Unfaithful" finally makes her a major star.

She 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.

P-I movie critic William Arnold can be reached at 206-448-8185 or williamarnold@seattlepi.com.