New to Blu-ray this week is Diane Lane's one-woman show, Under the Tuscan Sun, which hit theaters in 2003, and was loosely based on the memoirs of the same name, by Frances Mayes. Lane stars as Mayes, a successful author whose world is ripped apart in the first three minutes of the film when she finds her husband has been unfaithful and is divorcing her. For the next 110 minutes, we see Frances Eat, Pray, Love on her way to Tuscany to get ...Her Groove Back, and finally have A Good Year.

The plot (though just summed up) is pretty simple: Mayes' husband takes the house, which forces her to move into a depressing apartment complex for recent (and not-so-recent) divorcees. When her pregnant friend, Patti (Sandra Oh) convinces her to take the place of her and her partner on a Gay and Away tour of Europe, Frances finally excepts and finds herself in love with the Tuscan countryside. Impulsiveness and a need for change get the best of her, and she finds herself buying a dilapidated old villa called Bramasole, and hiring a ragtag band of Polish workers to help fix it up. All this leaves the viewer and Frances' friends wondering when she's going to meet "him."

Unfortunately for the film, it spends too much of the time focusing on Frances waiting to be complete by finding the new replacement guy to take her mind off the last one. I did like the overall message that she needed to actually get her priorities in line with herself and stop worrying about someone else completing her before she can be happy, but wish it didn't take almost two hours to get there. The movie drags quite a bit, and doesn't seem to want to pick whether it's a soul-searching drama or sappy rom-com, so neither camp will be completely satiated.

It does also bring up some great messages about the pain of a broken marriage, and being patient in life for the things God may have for you. Frances says of divorce that it "should kill you, but doesn't," and that it's amazing that a "bullet in the heart" doesn't put you out of your misery. On patience and faith, she learns how the tunnel was built through the Alps before a train could even make the journey through it, and that sometimes you search so hard for something (ladybugs/love) that when you finally stop trying and give up control, that thing may come to you instead.

Overall, it turns out a shade better than I was expecting, and trial again leads to perspective. It takes quite a bit of time to get there, but it's (mostly) worth the investment. Other minor side plots involve a broken relationship between pregnant Patti and her partner, and a forbidden romance between a young Italian girl and a penniless Polish worker, but they take a far back seat.

The Blu-ray release has very sparse offerings when it comes to bonus features, and I'm pretty sure they are identical to the ones that were included on the DVD release. Three deleted scenes and a director commentary round out the usual fare, and a barely nine minute featurette entitled "Tuscany 101" shows a look at the making of the movie, some behind the scenes stuff with the director, and the author's thoughts on converting her memoirs to the big screen.