Spiritual Cinema asks who we are and why we are here, and illuminates our human condition in images, thoughts, and feelings that inspire us to strive for who we can be as a species when we operate at our very best. When movies touch upon all those issues, they resonate deeply within us. Such was my response to Under the Tuscan Sun which revolves around a subject matter rarely even approached today in mainstream films: women over forty who divorce, are divorced (or widowed), or who simply have chosen to be alone until that time of their lives. (While I acknowledge that I might be wading into dangerous “PC” waters here as a man writing about this subject, I have raised four daughters, so, unafraid of anything!, I will plunge forward).

In Tuscan, Diane Lane plays a woman who discovers in the first scene of the film that her husband has been cheating on her. Very quickly, she is sitting in a divorce lawyer’s office where she learns that she will have to pay alimony unless she sells her half of her house to her husband and his new girlfriend. Heartbroken and humiliated, she leaves her home with only three boxes of books and moves into a “newly-separated-single-persons-from-hell” apartment. Two of her friends surprise her with a plane ticket to take a tour of Tuscany. They convince her to depart by warning her that she is on the brink of being one of those “shell cases” who never recover from a divorce and wander aimlessly through life forevermore. Still in shock, she nevertheless takes off for Tuscany.

Feel familiar? It just might. Divorce has become an unfortunate fact of life in America over the last thirty years, and countless numbers of women have been faced with the dilemma of having defined their lives for themselves in one way (often through their spouses) and then being forced to confront a whole new set of challenges as their marriages dissolve. The movies have touched upon the subject matter, certainly, and there was even that APOCRYPHAL!! story referred to in Sleepless in Seattle comparing the chances of a woman over forty getting remarried to the chances of being attacked by a terrorist. It also sounds a bit like the lyrics to a country and western song, doesn’t it? Except Diane doesn’t lose her truck. Don’t worry. As it is with the most painful and wrenching passages of our lives, Tuscan Sun ultimately becomes a poignant, inspiring, and empowering reminder of the resiliency and determination of the human soul.

In the wonderful film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, the pivotal metaphor comes from a “myth” about jumping from a mountain with faith and a “pure heart,” and that is exactly what Lane does when she arrives in Tuscany and falls in love with an old house. When she describes the thought of buying it as “probably a bad idea,” she is reminded “Don’t you just love those?” and, throwing caution (and every dime she has) to the winds (of change), she dives in. In a new country where she doesn’t even speak the language, with no friends, no compass, and no “master plan,” she nonetheless plunges fearlessly forward with an absolute determination to reclaim her dignity and her right to be happy.

As adults, most of us have faced the prospect — or reality — of losing everything we hold dear. (I personally plan to buy a few DVDs of this film when it becomes available in 2004 so that I can give them to friends who are experiencing this kind of life challenge.) These life passages initially appear to be so traumatic as to be even life-threatening but, as Lane ultimately says in Tuscan Sun, “you don’t die from a broken heart.” While I realize that some people may argue that point, the inspirational message of the film is that life doesn’t have to end simply because of such challenges. As spiritual beings living a human existence, we are ultimately defined by our choices, and our lives provide us with certain opportunities to redefine, and even reinvent, ourselves by looking beyond the fear and pain of a particular moment to the possibilities of transformation and transcendence. Tuscan Sun paints such a portrait and I heartily recommend it as an empowering, uplifting, and inspiring film.

MovieMystic Chakra Rating for Under the Tuscan Sun. (For an explanation of The Chakra Rating System, please visit www.Mysticalmovies.com.)

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Rating 4 3 4 3 4 3 4