Good start, but then it gets ruined

Excellent, a Must See

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

It is predictable, it has a lot of clichés, it doesn't aspire to be even nearer to what would be called a great film, or even a good one - or even a hit -, but its dialogues are fine and truthful, and reveal an experienced knowledge of a writer's craft and soul and suffering. As the comment above put it, it's a film of real people with real problems, apparently common and minor problems to the viewer who expects to extract some titillation out of films - the characters here are not involved in intrigues, in hiding a murder or escape from it -, but problems hard enough for those involved. As we learn somewhere: there is no order of difficulty in problems, one is not "harder" or "bigger" than another. They are all the same. The great psychologist Viktor Frankl, who spent four years in a concentration camp, tells in "Man's Search for Meaning", in an almost candid way, that his terrible sufferings there at the camp doesn't amount to anything bigger than anyone's. He makes a perfect analogy, and with the most frightening element an inmate of a concentration camp could think of: "A man's suffering is similar to the behaviour of gas. If a certain quantity of gas is pumped into an empty chamber, it will fill the chamber completely and evenly. Thus suffering completely fills the human soul and conscious mind, no matter whether the suffering is great or little. Therefore the 'size' of human suffering is absolutely relative".Well, it seems a lot of thinking to draw from such an unpretentious film, but I think in that resides its merits. Keitel's outstanding performance adds a lot to it, it's on a level much higher than the whole production. It's amazing how great actors can have some of their great moments in lesser films, as Keitel here, or as Morgan Freeman unique, out-of-bounds performance in "Street Wise".

I loved this film from the start, Keitel is wonderful as always, the rest of the cast is well played, the film is great if you a big fan of Harvey Keitel, the rest of the cast of just a good comedy! But some may find it boring. Frankly I loved the film!!! If you like Harvey Keitel this may be a good movie to watch for you, some parts of this film is not family scenes, so if you'd like to watch a nice happy family movie with nothing bad and no adult language this might not be the best movie to gather your kids around the television to watch. This film does contain some adult situations that might not be suitable for some peoples children, I do think this is a wonderful film but some may not like it.

I am astonished that this woeful movie garnered an average score of 6.7 out of 10 on IMDb...! For a movie about writers and writing, the script is particularly predictable and turgid. I am not sure what was worse - the relentless inevitability of the completely obvious happy ending, or the clichéd romantic subplot.Keitel was clearly enjoying his holiday in Tuscany a little too much, with a performance that was at best, 'very relaxed'. Joshua Jackson, however, sounded like he was reading the script for the first time. And as for Claire Forlani ... "look, mum, I'm not just pretty, I'm ACTING!" If you're ever forced to watch this movie, turn the sound down. That way you can enjoy the movie's only asset - its Tuscan setting - without needing to hear Keitel's character, allegedly a grand master of literature, reciting prose so clumsy it would have earned a creative writing sophomore a 'D' on their term paper.

Tuscany is like a magnet for sentimental Americans: the landscape, the people, the appreciation of life emanates from the sunscapes and offers a paradise to world-weary viewers. And so it is that Tuscany is the true star of this little romantic film. Yet writer/director Brad Mirman clearly knows how to script and move a story that, while predictable, still carries us along with wonderful characters from a fine cast.Jeremy (Joshua Jackson) works for a publishing house in New York and is sent to Tuscany to coerce famous novelist Weldon Parish (Harvey Keitel) into ending his 20-year moratorium and write a new, 'bound to be best seller' novel. Parish has not written since he lost his beloved wife, becoming instead a rascal who spends his days basking in the lazy sun with his best friends the priest Father Moretti (Giancarlo Giannini), hotelier Gustavo (Armando Pucci) and his squeeze Amalia (Valeria Cavalli). He lives with his daughter Isabella (Claire Forlani) and is visited often by his other daughters Dinnie (Silvia De Santis) and Maura (Bianca Guaccero), each of whom hopes that their father will return to writing. Upon Jeremy's arrival he finds that everyone in the village is protective of Parish and when he finally meets the silent author, he discovers a man who loathes editors, publishers, press, and anyone else who wants him to start writing again. Gradually Jeremy and Parish begin to break down barriers: Jeremy admits that he longs to be a writer but fears failure and Parish admits that his silence at the typewriter is due to a similar fear. Jeremy falls in love with Isabella, becomes a part of Parish's drinking trio, undergoes some lessons in life .... and the ending is obvious from the start! Harvey Keitel gives a moving performance as the gritty but passionate writer, Joshua Jackson makes Jeremy a believably transitioned man, and the supporting cast is consistently excellent. It really doesn't matter that we know from the beginning just how things will turn out: it is the getting there that is the pleasure of this light but touching film. The only significant problems are in the editing: there appear to be stops and starts as though this were made for television with places for commercials. But other than that this is a film that only asks that we relax, nod recognition, and enjoy the theme of the importance of honesty and the quality of life available if we follow our dreams. Grady Harp