Under the Tuscan Sun

Under the Tuscan Sun is a 2003 Chick Flick about an author (Diane Lane) who is happy one day, then finds out her husband is cheating on her and soon ends up divorced and living in a sad little apartment. She finds this situation intolerable, so decides to go on a vacation to Europe. While there, she buys a giant villa in Tuscany (of course) on a whim, and spends the rest of the movie fixing it and her life up.

---

Tropes used in Under the Tuscan Sun include:

• All Lesbians Want Kids: This formed part of the plot impetus for the film. The protagonist's friends had booked a tour of Italy, but gave the tickets to her when their artificial insemination was successful.
• Big Fancy House - A bit run down, but freakin' enormous.
• Bilingual Backfire: There's a scene where a handyman is doing work on the villa while the three women who are staying there discuss his good looks in English. When he's done with the work, he smiles and thanks them in English, and tells them that he's an American.
• Boyfriend Bluff - A variation. Frances grabs Mercello and pretends to be his girlfriend in order to get rid of some rude admirers.
• The Cameo: Jon Bon Jovi as the handyman from the scene described in Bilingual Bonus above.
• Hollywood Economics - She gets $300,000 from the sale of her house, and isn't implied to have a great deal more sitting around. The villa she buys must be worth a million Euro...at least, not counting the renovation with crew. It doesn't quite add up.
  • The scene where she makes her offer to the original owner heavily implies that it's a rather paltry sum. She's only sold the house because a pigeon flies over and... eliminates on her, which the owner takes to be a sign from God (or something like that). Francis goes over things like renovation expenses, as well, though it's never quite explained how much she actually has.
• Olive Garden - The movie arguably wouldn't work at all otherwise.
• Scenery Porn: Mainly exists to make yuppies think that Tuscany is very, very pretty.