Under the Tuscan Sun

Under the Tuscan Sun is the kind of film which begs for Hannah Gordon (a cross between Judith Chalmers and fabric conditioner) and three pensioners to appear at regular intervals painting watercolours of the lovely countryside, a bit like the comedy squirrel in Ice Age. Unfortunately, no reviews seem to mention Miss Gordon turning up at any point in this story of a woman (Diane Lane) getting her life back on track by moving to Tuscany and doing up an old villa. Sounds a bit like a cross between A Year in Provence, Wife Swap and Escape to the Country to me. Composer Christophe Beck is undoubtedly best known for his work on the Buffy TV series, but since its demise has been carving out a name in feature film scoring, this being one of his numerous entries this year and fortunately is about as far from Buffy as you can get. I can imagine the scenario now, '...ah, you're the Buffy guy - right, horror films until you expire. Go join the queue marked 'Marco Beltrami.''
Beck's music is probably most easily described as Thomas Newman Goes Fellini, certainly from the opening moments of Follow the Flower where ethereal strings give way to a perky guitar and light percussion riff, ostensibly the main theme. Director Audrey Wells, in her brief liner note, mentions wanting a modern idea for the lead character, but also a hint of Rota and some comic/romantic music as an expression of Italian life, although I'd have thought that the former is often exactly the latter. In any case, the homage to Rota is fairly slight, but there is a cheerful breeziness that one could easily imagine listening to while driving around in a clapped out Fiat. Beck seems careful not to overdo the comedy, something which can spoil authentic Italian scores (certain Nicola Piovani efforts, for example) and while it rarely becomes heavy or maudlin, neither is it silly. The drama is distinctly low key and favours gentle strings and Newmanesque piano motifs, but tracks such as Polonia carry enough emotional weight to counteract the froth.

Given how small the ensemble is for much of the running time, it is curious to note that Under the Tuscan Sun lists the names of the 80-odd piece orchestra. For the few tracks that feature more than a few named soloists, surely a small chamber orchestra of a dozen strings and a handful of woodwind would suffice? Maybe Hollywood composers just like to spend all of their budget lest it be reduced in future, but the number of players hired for this and many other scores is almost certain overkill. Anyway, for all that, Under the Tuscan Sun is the kind of score that can be left on in the background to lighten the mood and doesn't require any careful concentration from the listener. There's nothing much new here, but in following the Thomas Newman lead (with a hint of Rota), Beck manages to contribute a score that is generally upbeat and lovely, but without becoming bogged down in maudlin, sugar coated string melodies that overwhelm the entire enterprise, plus maintaining the careful balance between remaining low key while keeping the ball rolling. Charming fluff.