Transcript
Nate Day: Welcome to Adaptation, the book to movie podcast. I'm Nate.
Chris: And I'm Chris.
Nate Day: And today we have a discussion for you about Under the Tuscan Sun. written by Is it Francis Hayes? Am I correct?
Chris: Mayes
Nate Day: Mayes Frances Mayes and a film adaptation by Audrey Wells. But before we dive into this, even though I just saw you four days ago, so it feels silly to ask this, how are you, Chris Anderson?
Chris: i am wonderful i got a big busy weekend couple of rehearsals couple of gigs
Nate Day: Yeah, you're the music man now.
Chris: very just out here living. yeah it's fun it's a lot of fun i went to a jam tuesday night from 10pm to 2am. I had forgotten what that feels like.
Nate Day: Oh. Yeah, that sounds like hell.
Chris: Yeah, take it.
Nate Day: That's the day after you got back from vacation too?
Chris: Yep.
Nate Day: That was crazy.
Chris: Yep. Well, the trains run so sparingly overnight, obviously.
Chris: I'm sitting at the train station and it's me and three other dudes who are also at the jam. Yeah, getting getting home at 4 a .m. on a Wednesday felt wild. So still recovering.
Nate Day: That's crazy. You're in your 30s.
Chris: i know And they were all like, hey.
Nate Day: You need to act. It.
Chris: yeah there's another jam at this place tomorrow, same time, pretty, pretty similar neighborhood. I'm like, That's... I briefly entertained it.
Nate Day: Thumbs down.
Chris: And then I was hanging out with my buddy, Josh, who is going to be the guest on the next episode. And it was like 930.
Nate Day: Oh great.
Chris: And I was like, all right, I got to eat some dinner. And he's like, are you going to the jam? I said, no, I need to eat some dinner so I can go to sleep.
Nate Day: Go to bed, yep.
Chris: Yes, yes
Nate Day: Well. Thank God. for that.
Chris: How about you?
Nate Day: What?
Chris: Good.
Nate Day: Yeah, good week, busy.
Chris: Good transition.
Nate Day: busy it's always hard to
Chris: Yeah.
Nate Day: Come back from a trip. Especially, we it was...
Chris: Mm -hmm.
Nate Day: We were in Florida just laying on a... on a beach and a poolside for four days and then going to eat food.
Chris: Oh.
Nate Day: And then going right back to land at the poolside. So it was really hard to like... do things, you know? I was like, I have emails?
Chris: from back to real.
Nate Day: I have to answer these?
Chris: Yep. Yep.
Nate Day: but No, it's it's good. And I've been seeing plenty of movies. I know you're keeping up to speed on your reading. So what have you been? digesting lately.
Chris: Yeah, well, again, since we saw each other, I already got to tell you about this, but I finally picked up, I've had the copy of Bossy Pants. the Tina Fey.
Nate Day: Oh yeah.
Chris: Memoir? I guess we'd still call that a memoir, right?
Nate Day: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Chris: It feels weird when they're as young and still active as she is, to call it a memoir.
Nate Day: Right, like at the peak of her career still.
Chris: but
Nate Day: Yeah.
Chris: Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely loved it. It felt very akin to me. I don't read tons of memoirs. so it felt very akin to me because of the nature of her work and her career to
Nate Day: Okay.
Chris: A year of yes.
Nate Day: Hmm.
Chris: Shonda Rhimes.
Nate Day: Mm -hmm.
Chris: Yes. Okay. in like the
Chris: There would be little glimpses. You've read it. Correct?
Nate Day: Oh yeah.
Chris: There were like sort of little, I mean, it it by no means is a blueprint to. achieving the career that I have necessarily, but little glimpses of that sort of advice.
Nate Day: Sure.
Chris: Along with, I mean...
Nate Day: Yeah.
Chris: indisputably incredible writer, right?
Nate Day: Yeah.
Chris: So obviously her book.
Nate Day: Mm -hmm.
Chris: also rocks.
Nate Day: Yeah.
Chris: Yeah, that was a fun one. And I thought of you the whole time.
Nate Day: I, that's my, that's my pop culture mom. It's Tina Fey.
Chris: Yes.
Nate Day: He's a part of my...
Chris: I mean, I think I... think i
Nate Day: DNA for sure.
Chris: that That book took me like two sittings. Just you fly through it in the most delightful way.
Nate Day: Yeah.
Chris: One, that you can't put it down.
Nate Day: Yeah.
Chris: And two, that's always such a mark of a good writer to me when you're like, oh, I'll sit down and read a chapter. And the next time you look up, you've just like accidentally read 75 pages.
Nate Day: Right. Yeah. It is a mark of a good book.
Chris: Yeah. For sure, for sure. What have you been watching?
Nate Day: Yeah. I've been... watching quite a bit let me pull up my my list here it's been a few weeks since we recorded so i don't remember exactly what i have told you about but I also told you I saw Hadestown.
Nate Day: which I loved and keep listening to over and over again.
Chris: Yeah.
Nate Day: If you get a chance to see it, I recommend it. the end of Oak Street with our patron saint. Anne Hathaway fighting dinosaurs, really cool. You guys would like that movie?
Chris: What's up?
Nate Day: several Several movies on our... trip down to Florida. Then this week I saw the Anthony Bourdain biopic, Tony.
Chris: oh How was it?
Nate Day: phenomenal movie. It is so...
Chris: Yes.
Nate Day: Good. Hey.
Chris: Kitchen Confidential is one of my favorite books ever
Nate Day: blew me away. it's
Nate Day: I did not have... I've never had much of a relationship to Anthony Bourdain. I don't think I even really knew who he was when he died. but was obviously overwhelmed by the people that had this.
Nate Day: Incredible. You know reaction to his death sort of like Dolly Parton the other day you know where you're just like, whoa, you forget how impactful some of these people are.
Chris: o Oh.
Nate Day: So I went into this movie fairly...
Chris: Yep.
Nate Day: fairly blind. I knew that he was a chef. I knew that he was sort of like mouthy. I knew that he was sort of edgy. But I just... I just loved, that's one of my favorite movies of the year.
Nate Day: I thought it was so, so good. So you should definitely check it out.
Chris: Wow.
Nate Day: And it makes me want to read. kitchen confidential. I believe it's maybe... inspired by the first couple of chapters where he talks about is like the summer he decided to become a cook basically.
Chris: Yeah. Yes. Based on the trailer, it looks like...
Chris: Nearly an adaptation. Maybe we cut a little lightning round to that, too.
Nate Day: Oh yeah, that'd be cool. I would so do that. I loved. that movie.
Chris: I think you would enjoy the book
Nate Day: I couldn't believe how much I loved it. I think so, too. Well, a lot of it was like. I thought it was such an interesting portrait of well maybe i'll save it in case we do a longer discussion but i just really liked the approach to
Chris: Yeah.
Nate Day: like worshiping your craft in a way that is not toxically masculine.
Chris: o
Nate Day: You know, because the the flip side of that is that in honor of Dolly Parton. I watched nine to five the other day. Great movie.
Chris: Thank you.
Nate Day: But I, the whole time I was just like, this boss is such a. Oh. dunce which is obviously the point but he's you know comparing everything to like
Chris: on
Nate Day: sports teams and i'm like god no wonder like but Fuck. You know?
Chris: Yep.
Nate Day: So anyway. Then I just last night saw the Dog Stars. which was a colossal waste of my time, so so maybe skip that one.
Chris: That's so disappointing.
Nate Day: I know.
Chris: Mm.
Nate Day: i I really like Ridley Scott, the director. Uh... Just bad. Not good movie. But.
Chris: it's It's a tough one. Like I told you before we started, I'm only halfway through, but in reading it. It feels very much like a tough text to adapt.
Nate Day: I wonder too. That's actually a really good segue into our discussion today about Under the Tuscan Sun, because I really don't know why it was. made into a movie spoiler alert
Chris: I have similar questions along this line.
Nate Day: and
Chris: Wait, wait, wait, rewind for one second. You watched nine to five in honor of Dolly.
Nate Day: Yeah.
Chris: So what did you watch in honor of Tim?
Nate Day: Yeah. In honor of Tim Curry, Chris's favorite actor, I watched a movie. It was sort of a double double whammy because it was also directed by Ridley Scott, so it was sort of prep. for the dog stars.
Nate Day: called Legend. which is a Tom Cruise plays like a... I don't know. It's a terrible, terrible movie. I do not recommend it either.
Chris: Go.
Nate Day: But Tim Curry plays basically the devil and he's in the full body makeup and he's just like campy and just frigging chews the hell out of the scenery.
Chris: Mm -hmm.
Nate Day: and You know, he's got such that deep, like throaty. voice. He's the perfect devil.
Chris: everyone
Nate Day: it was so his He was the only good thing in that movie.
Chris: Thank you.
Nate Day: uh
Chris: Yes.
Nate Day: But anyway, that's... Yeah, that's that's those have been my r RIP watches this week. Legend and.
Chris: If you have
Nate Day: 9 to 5.
Chris: if If you and all of you, dear listeners. Have a chance this week. Are you familiar with College Dropout? the Network?
Chris: I don't know what we call them.
Nate Day: No. No.
Chris: Oh, okay. they So Sam Reich. Uh... sketch comedy they do Game Changers now is like their big one.
Chris: No, nothing.
Nate Day: No. Uh -uh.
Chris: Okay, well, you have a whole world to explore. But there's this gentleman big in like the online D and &D world and sketch comedy world named Brennan Lee Mulligan.
Nate Day: Okay.
Chris: Are you familiar?
Nate Day: Okay. hell No.
Chris: Oh my goodness, Nate Day.
Nate Day: Why would I know someone that's big in the D and &D world?
Chris: Okay. This is. No, but in the... in the in media college dropout early like internet humor you need to get on board dude anyway His...
Nate Day: Okay, okay.
Chris: All of his Tim Curry impressions are... floating back up now because of Tim's death, obviously.
Nate Day: Oh, is that the guy you sent me one?
Chris: Yes, that guy, that guy.
Nate Day: Oh. That was great. Yeah, that was great.
Chris: phenomenal. I mean, he he was the perfect bet.
Nate Day: Yeah.
Chris: Grip.
Nate Day: I know. I know.
Chris: Tough week.
Nate Day: That was... Tough. Tough week, tough two to lose, I think, for for people that just appreciate storytelling.
Chris: a
Nate Day: and persona and Yeah, that sucks.
Chris: Yep. Well, on that note.
Nate Day: I almost didn't believe the Dolly Parton news when I got the notification.
Chris: Me too.
Nate Day: But yes, under the Tuscan sun. by Francis Mayes a little lighter topic, I suppose.
Chris: Yes.
Nate Day: Tell us about.
Chris: Yeah.
Nate Day: The book. Chris.
Chris: All right First of all, not the freaking movie. Okay. Glad we got that out of the way. This was a shit.
Nate Day: What? but Because you
Chris: Shock. to read.
Nate Day: Oh, really?
Chris: well again as you
Nate Day: Oh wait, can I tell my story? Should I tell my story now?
Chris: i have a note I have a note in here for where you should, okay?
Nate Day: Oh, okay. Got it. Yeah. Got it.
Chris: Okay, so under the Tuscan sun, let me pull the... Full title back up. Under the Tuscan Sun. colon, at home in Italy.
Chris: By Francis Mays. published in 1996. It is literally just a memoir of her buying a house in Italy and fixing it up.
Nate Day: Oh. That. okay
Chris: Some parts. are the same. uh so this is it is true this was post -divorce for her Which was really our, as a... as a Couples.
Chris: introduction to this movie, right?
Nate Day: laughs Yeah. yeah
Chris: but You go ahead. This is where you may share.
Nate Day: Oh, okay.
Chris: The colorful bath.
Nate Day: Chris, several years ago, went through a divorce. Is that okay for me to say? and
Chris: Of course.
Nate Day: needed a place to stay for a while. I had an extra bedroom in my place, so he came to stay with me. and We're both early risers, but Chris more so than me. and And one day I came downstairs at about seven in the morning on like a Saturday or something when we should have been like.
Chris: No, it was like a Tuesday or Wednesday.
Nate Day: Oh, it was? So I was probably came downstairs for work, and you were teaching at the time, so you were not. working. It was the summer. And he was. you know three quarters of the way through this.
Nate Day: Diane Lane movie crying his eyes out on my couch. Seven in the morning.
Chris: drinking a White Claw.
Nate Day: Oh, with a white clown hand? Woof, I missed that. and I was like, what on earth? is this movie? I'd never heard of it. And he was like, it's about divorce. I was like.
Nate Day: Okay. du get Do what you need to do. Let it out. buddy. And. Ever since then, I have had it on my watch list. And it's in Chris's Letterboxd top four.
Nate Day: And... I make a lot of jokes about Chris crying too. Diane Lane movie at seven in the morning. While he was in the throes of a painful.
Nate Day: End of an era. So that's how good of a friend I am. but Here we are.
Chris: And you.
Nate Day: Getting it all out later.
Chris: You worked. In the same room at that time. You worked at that table in the dining room.
Nate Day: That's true.
Chris: so
Nate Day: I just plugged away while you... Cried. Cried. yeah
Chris: Cried into my white cloth. Well, and what I don't think you ever knew was I was... out living a wilder life at that time. So I had not in fact gotten up at 6 a .m. to watch this movie. I had just gotten in.
Nate Day: Oh really?
Chris: Yeah.
Nate Day: I did not know that I thought that you were just kind of waiting for the day to start.
Nate Day: Wow.
Chris: My days never end.
Nate Day: Well... You are the music man.
Chris: So... So that's that's how we found this.
Nate Day: Yeah.
Chris: Uh, Firmly stand by still top four films.
Nate Day: And by the way, you are what he's watching it on like Tubi or something like that, you know, where it has like 17 ad breaks in the weirdest spots.
Chris: uh, for me.
Nate Day: So it was just like, what is going on here?
Chris: Every time Sandra Oh came on it cut to an ad. It was so strange.
Nate Day: Yep. Yeah.
Chris: Uh...
Nate Day: Yeah.
Chris: Yeah, that was so that was our introduction, which I think... Now with that context of why I love it so much. explains at least in some part why I did not enjoy this freaking book.
Nate Day: Oh, shoot. Okay.
Chris: Because that's essentially where the similarities end.
Nate Day: Dang it.
Chris: the The entire book. It's her and her boyfriend, now husband Ed, who took her last name. Living in Italy, fixing up this house.
Nate Day: Cool.
Chris: and traveling around and making recipes. It did, to her credit... Clearly, the world does not agree with me. And I'll get into my postulating later.
Chris: But I spent two and a half years on the New York Times bestseller list.
Nate Day: Jeez.
Chris: And is culturally credited with, I saw some suggesting it sparked this. I would call it perhaps reigniting or rekindling. It certainly wasn't the beginning of this idea.
Chris: But this trend of Americans going and buying dilapidated estates abroad and renovating them.
Nate Day: Oh. Wow, okay.
Chris: Right.
Nate Day: Sure.
Chris: And again, i I have trouble picturing it because of when I found it. This was now published 30 years ago.
Nate Day: and
Chris: So... Yeah, tough to... Trying to view it through that lens.
Nate Day: right
Chris: She's also very noted for her affinity, love of and skills in the kitchen. And so it's viewed as almost a pseudo. cookbook chic includes many fairly detailed recipes as she's cooking these.
Nate Day: Oh.
Chris: traditional Italian meals she's learning about in the hills of Tuscany.
Nate Day: Okay, they sound good.
Chris: They do. Oh my gosh. I mean, the book you you cannot read this book on an empty stomach.
Nate Day: Yeah.
Chris: Yeah.
Nate Day: Yeah, no.
Chris: So to her credit, good writing in that sense. I did a lot of listening to the audiobook while cooking dinner, and that was a pleasant experience.
Nate Day: Hmm. Yeah.
Chris: also because it was narrated by her, so lended.
Nate Day: Oh cool.
Chris: Good flavor. Pun intended.
Nate Day: Hey.
Chris: Ultimately, I would consider this essentially a precursor to what we now have in Spades. of these.
Chris: Travel bloggers, her and her now husband went on to write several more books about their home in Tuscany, their travels throughout Italy, throughout Europe, Macedonia, Spain, the food they were finding, the experiences they had. And again, to her credit, she does do a good job mixing in these descriptions of...
Chris: Oh my gosh. Uh... In Tuscany, there was a people group we know little about. who was there before the modern Italians.
Chris: It mixes in cool history and stuff. And so it's not it's not poorly written by any means. Just if you see the movie first, you will be. Surprised. I guess is the...
Nate Day: Yeah.
Chris: the thrust of my argument here.
Nate Day: Okay.
Chris: and so here's i tried to as i told you before we started recording i tried to wrestle with my I'll call them biases.
Chris: Yeah, I don't have a better way to say it. My my preconceived notions and my modern take on... these industries the travel blogging the online recipes the All of this, it's tough to see from a 30 years ago light, like how would this have been received?
Chris: How would I have received it in the mid 90s? That's difficult to view now, because I've been...
Nate Day: Oh sure.
Chris: of Of course, but I mean, this one... This one more than many we discuss because it's such particular content.
Nate Day: Okay.
Chris: you know, We were talking about kitchen confidential. I don't know how much they were contemporaries, how what their age difference is, but there is a sense to me like... Anthony Bourdain walked so Gordon Ramsey can run.
Chris: Right, this this grouch in the kitchen having this big personality.
Nate Day: I guess, yeah
Nate Day: Yeah.
Chris: I view it along those lines. Like is what we have now better because of what she did? Were people truly inspired by it? I don't know.
Nate Day: Who can say?
Nate Day: Yeah.
Chris: exactly i i have been quite immersed in this presence of people choosing lives along these lines of course as you know because i've spent Okay.
Nate Day: you' Right.
Chris: a couple few years of my life living out of suitcases in airbnbs being in foreign lands
Nate Day: me
Chris: But there were a few notable points to me that really rubbed me the wrong way. And I have no idea if they have that impact on others, if they are.
Nate Day: Okay.
Chris: Not important. And I'm just being sensitive again because of my own biases.
Nate Day: Yeah.
Chris: But to me, it's important to note that. So she... became or She was a writer, and then she she had done her bachelor's, went and got her master's at this university in San Francisco, and then stayed on and became a successful professor at her alma mater.
Chris: And she does credit this book and its sales and its success as what allowed her to shift to writing full time.
Nate Day: Sure.
Chris: But here are the aspects that I could not get out of my head while reading. In the recipe and food sections, she often refers to their home cook growing up. in the south i believe georgia but i don't remember exactly Uh, And then.
Chris: They're living in San Francisco and going back and forth buying this house and renovating it Again.
Nate Day: Yeah.
Chris: Granted, this was the mid 90s. It was not the post Silicon Valley boom market that we know today. You know, I've told you I had friends who were teachers there and have literally had to leave because they couldn't afford to live in that city as a teacher.
Nate Day: Right, right
Chris: And so... i while reading kept getting this picture of oh you grew up with a home cook
Nate Day: Right.
Chris: Oh, you and your husband are both professors in San Francisco?
Nate Day: In San Francisco, yeah.
Chris: This is not. this is like there's a there's a youtube channel i'm quite fond of called project camp This group of people who bought a plot of land in Portugal, they're living there, growing most of their own food, living very sustainably. This is decidedly not that.
Nate Day: Sure. Right.
Chris: Y 'all had the... cash to go buy a nine bedroom villa.
Nate Day: Yeah.
Chris: And fix it up. you know, and pay the crews to pay. They do do plenty of their work themselves. I'm not trying to discredit them by any means. But...
Nate Day: Yeah.
Chris: Yeah, oh the home chef making these delightful meals that she learned from their personal chef in their home growing like It's not the idyllic picture that I would assume.
Chris: brought it into such success at the time.
Nate Day: Right.
Chris: And so that's the lens that I kept reading it through, which... Again, I don't know if... We've talked about plenty of... books that were fairly altered. in the movie form.
Nate Day: Yeah.
Chris: I don't know if it's just the compounding interest of these two factors but Those two things are very much what what made it a somewhat unsatisfying book for me.
Nate Day: Sure. Sure.
Chris: Again, I want to recognize this is probably the harshest analysis possible. But to my eyes, it is a far cry from what we see these individuals selling their meager possessions, betting it all on black and getting this cozy cottage in rural Ireland or Spain or France and building this new life.
Nate Day: right Right. Totally.
Chris: uh and that's like the entire book you know they go on some cool travels they go around the area around them she does talk a lot about like this it When we go into town, this is the road the Romans built 2 ,000 years ago. and when i've been in italy i have been struck by those same as we all should those same marvels of Oh, y 'all just live in an apartment that was built 600 years ago.
Nate Day: Yeah.
Chris: And this is... just your house you know there is a legacy a history a heritage there that is undeniably cool and she does tap into that and do a good job of writing about it
Nate Day: Yeah. Well... Cool. it's a book
Chris: That's it. it's a book It is a book.
Nate Day: Well, good. That's interesting. We are going to take a quick break before we dive into. the movie which is also kind of just a movie. Heads up.
Nate Day: Welcome back to Adaptation, the book to movie podcast. Chris just gave us a rundown of... Francis Mays, Under the Tuscan Sun. And i'm now I'm going to talk about the movie. which in case you're just now joining or forgot.
Nate Day: Chris. cried while he watched on my couch. four or five years ago, something like that. and I won't let him live it down.
Chris: I like just now joining. As the picture of like someone who skips to minute 20 of the podcast.
Nate Day: Right, like this is airing on television. I'm just I'm just manifesting here.
Chris: Yeah.
Nate Day: I'm preparing for when Netflix wants to put this on.
Chris: Yes.
Nate Day: as a alive. event. Uh, This would be a poor pitch of a of an episode.
Chris: Thanks.
Nate Day: No, actually here's the thing about this movie. when I watched it. I didn't really watch when Chris was watching it on the couch because, like Chris said, I had to. work my job. that Chris did not have. uh I...
Nate Day: sat down to watch this a couple weeks ago and was like this is insane and i immediately texted chris and was like what is this movie why do you why did you love this what is going on obviously i understood the divorce angle and and It's a story about a woman finding herself after a divorce, which is...
Nate Day: Something you can really only understand if that's something you're... going through or have gone through. so But it's... it was such a bizarre movie and i'll talk about that more later but we were supposed to record this episode a couple of weeks ago but i was having some trouble managing a couple of things so i asked chris if we could delay and he said of course and
Nate Day: In those extra weeks, I've gotten some extra context that has helped me appreciate this movie as kind of an artifact of Hollywood, more so than a movie. itself So I do think that there's actually some interesting stuff.
Nate Day: to talk about here uh despite the fact that like I've said several times, I don't think the movie is that. strong. But...
Chris: Interesting.
Nate Day: Yeah, I think it's an interesting... It just came at an interesting time in Hollywood, which is 2003 when this movie came out. It's a rom -com -ish. I don't think it's particularly... romantic or Funny. It's kind of just like lighter than a drama.
Nate Day: and And those things are sort of... in it So I guess that's what I would call it as a rom -com. like i said it was written directed and produced by audrey wells who's mostly known for rom -coms and some of these more We don't see a lot of movies like this today that are kind of about...
Nate Day: dynamics interpersonal relationship dynamics. That makes it sound really heady, but I'm i'm often talking about like... how does this family get through some silly crisis or something like that.
Nate Day: Right.
Chris: Yes.
Nate Day: Okay. I would like to recap the first 15 minutes of this movie. Which is... After viewing. this 15 minutes is when I... Texted you, Chris.
Nate Day: This all happens in this order too. Our main character, whose name I'm going to look up right now, well, I guess Francis, right?
Chris: Yes.
Nate Day: Francis.
Chris: Let's go. to start a life.
Nate Day: learns of her husband's infidelity. begins to... vote uh the process of divorcing her husband. During the divorce, she screwed out of her home and belongings, most of her belongings.
Nate Day: She moves into temporary housing. She finalizes. Says divorce. rejects a very generous offer from her friends to take a vacation in their place. finds out her friends are expecting, her her friends who are Same gender couple, by the way. is confronted by various downsides of her career as both a writer and a critic of other people's writing.
Nate Day: changes her mind and accepts the generous offer from her friends. finds out that it is in fact a gay tour of Tuscany. arrives in Italy and is promptly booed for both being straight and is outed as a recent divorcee.
Nate Day: And then she had. She walks through an open -air market. where she spots and stalks. a duck loving brit who is dressed like she's attending the funeral of a kentucky derby horse.
Nate Day: That is the first 15 minutes of Under the Tuscan Sun.
Nate Day: You look like you're sweating a little bit, Chris.
Chris: First of all, I forgot how much I loved... that sequence in the movie.
Nate Day: Yeah, I bet you did.
Chris: Second of all, virtually none of that's in the book.
Nate Day: I... It sounds like it. that's I was like... Ditto. that was a real instance of like did ai exist in 2003 how did how did we get here.
Chris: Right, right. Did AI write this?
Nate Day: And that, yeah, that, like I said, I had to text Chris and be like, I think I'm going to throw up what is what's happening here.
Chris: that
Nate Day: That was 15 minutes. That was 15 minutes. Maybe 20 minutes. Maybe 20 minutes. But anyway. The movie stars Diane Lane. She's obviously sort of the the one and only prominent.
Nate Day: character You mentioned Sandra Oh is in this. One of her... Grey's Anatomy co -stars. whose name I'm going to blank on because I didn't write it down because she's not an important character, but it plays Sandra Oh's...
Nate Day: Wife. And for the most part, those are the only recognizable names in the movie because... They shoot. a lot of the movie in Italy. and use a lot of locals in the cast, which is kind of cool.
Nate Day: And actually, there's a lot of sequences where
Chris: Mm -hmm.
Nate Day: you know, I'm talking about like the contractors that help her work on the house and things like that. So there's a lot of scenes where they're speaking Italian to one another and it's not. subtitled, which I think is always a very interesting That's a conscious choice that any filmmaker is going to make.
Chris: Hmm.
Nate Day: when a language that is not the native language of the film. is being spoken they have to decide whether they're going to tell the audience what is being said or not And I think not subtitling it was a a really interesting choice.
Nate Day: because it didn't it doesn't matter. I mean, there was no plot. revealed or exposition or anything like that in the Italian. Dialogue, but it... it did help to sort of set the tone and make you feel like the character of Francis, who's sort of a fish out of water in Italy.
Chris: mark
Nate Day: and you see that i don't know if you recall in one battle after another when benicio del toro is hustling his Uh, you know house guests to safety they don't They don't subtitle that. Spanish.
Nate Day: either so I just i think it's it's always very interesting to me to see what a filmmaker decides and and what that decision... carries right like
Chris: oh
Nate Day: and And here it was very intentionally like. You're not supposed to understand the Italian contractors. Because they're kind of maybe going to be talking shit about you.
Chris: Yeah.
Nate Day: Right? so So that was kind of interesting.
Chris: Yeah yeah yeah.
Nate Day: Diane Lane, cool choice for the role too, just because at this time in her career, She was really known for... And then... this is This is like a very Diane Lane role. She was known for playing somewhat mature women that were sort of...
Nate Day: rediscovering themselves outside of their job, their marriage, their identity as a mother or a parent. you know it's it's very like eat pray love the whole thing is sort of like
Chris: who
Nate Day: you can rediscover yourself and it's okay to be a human being. instead of just all of those sort of adjectives that I listed. when you're I don't know 40, 50, whatever.
Chris: Right.
Nate Day: And it's become one of her... you know more better known roles, too. I was i was really surprised.
Nate Day: One of the things that I've learned over the last few weeks that's helped to contextualize this movie. I was surprised having never heard of it until that day. that you watched it.
Nate Day: As I've mentioned this. particular episode to a handful of people including Blair's family that we were with last week. they were like oh yeah that movie i know that movie i love that movie that was a big deal I was really.
Nate Day: surprised by that partly because my research is that it It kind of only did okay at the box office. but Also just that I'd never heard of it. Diane Lane's a bit of a... blind spot for me. as our early 2000s You Pray Love style.
Nate Day: rom -coms. but
Chris: fair
Nate Day: but This movie. has has a real lasting power like it's it's resonated with a lot of people since it came out And like I said, is is one of Diane Lane's sort of signature.
Nate Day: roles. If you had to choose four or five of her movies this would probably be One of them which I just think is kind of interesting
Chris: mm -hmm
Nate Day: Yeah. I found a fun fact about how it was turned into a movie. which is that one of the producers, a man named Tom Sternberg,
Nate Day: was also a producer on the movie The Talented Mr. Ripley. starring Matt Damon. and he and matt damon went out well in italy to this little pub or tavern something to get a drink one day and they ran into Francis and her husband And. Tom had actually previously read the book and passed on it because he didn't feel it was particularly cinematic, which it kind of sounds like maybe...
Nate Day: your in agreement with.
Chris: Correct.
Nate Day: And then after running into Francis. reread the book and decided that it was cinematic enough i don't i don't totally know what changed or if he was sort of just starstruck or da you know dazzled by
Chris: Uh -huh.
Nate Day: Bye. circumstance fate whatever you want to call it
Chris: Mm -hmm.
Nate Day: But he he then approached Audrey Wells and asked her to. Take a crack. at at creating this movie and she That's it.
Chris: I mean that's pretty cool.
Nate Day: Yeah, so
Chris: Literally just ran into him in Italy.
Nate Day: it is It is a cool story. And I think it speaks a lot to, you know, sometimes when you watch a movie, and I wonder if you ever feel this when you read a book, you're like, how did this even come about?
Chris: Yeah.
Nate Day: Like, how did enough people give this? a thumbs up and millions and millions of dollars to like nobody Saw a red. flag or nobody thought. Hey, this isn't as marketable as...
Nate Day: It needs. to be. So it's just an interesting case of enough people being like, Sure, but I don't... Try it. See what happens. and
Chris: Mm -hmm.
Nate Day: End. So they get to, I guess.
Chris: Well, and I think this actually illustrates that exactly, right? Because yeah, if you had asked me, read this book, would this be a good movie?
Nate Day: Yeah.
Chris: I'd be like. No.
Nate Day: Right. And that's like I said, that's sort of the...
Chris: And thankfully someone saw something there.
Nate Day: Right. Yeah, somebody did. like i said it did mostly okay at the box office grossed 60 million on an 18 million budget so it it did you know, make a solid amount of money. But it opened at number two behind a Dwayne Johnson action movie that I didn't even bother to write down the title of. because it's completely unimportant.
Chris: Uh huh.
Nate Day: But I do think it's important. that it came in second to that because I think that that's sort of emblematic of this shift in Hollywood where we started leaning more towards spectacle and like big guy punch things is a lot cooler than something that's more
Chris: Oh.
Nate Day: emotionally resonant or meaningful to maybe a more niche group of people, whether it's older women or d divorcees or or older women divorcees or whatever, right?
Nate Day: And we're seeing the ramifications of that now where these Marvel movies, with the exception of Spider -Man, of course.
Chris: Yep.
Nate Day: are are flopping. And. movies like obsession or the invite. come around and make a lot of money that are targeted at sort of more niche audiences
Chris: o
Nate Day: So we're kind of seeing the boomerang there. So really interesting to to look at this movie as, like I said, as an artifact of Hollywood. that Kind of got caught up in the wrong like headwinds, you know?
Chris: Yeah. Yeah. Wow.
Nate Day: Yeah.
Chris: Well, that's fascinating.
Nate Day: Okay, reviews. Mostly, a lot of the reviews were very polite. Like they would say things like, the movie is charming and it's well -intentioned and sort of all of those adjectives that you throw at something. when it's not very good, but you don't want to call it bad because it's not.
Chris: Thank you.
Nate Day: like evil, you know what I mean? like it's you're not like You're like, well, people have worked on that.
Chris: Yes.
Nate Day: you know What I did think was interesting was that some of the negative reviews I found, it seemed this way to me.
Chris: i said
Nate Day: I've not seen anybody else like comment on this. It seemed like more of the negative reviews came from women. critics. which i thought was really interesting because while i was watching the movie i was like why is this written and directed by a woman and produced but it's shot through the male gaze. Like there's, there's like boob jokes and things in this movie. And I'm like, what is, and the and just the way it.
Nate Day: physically captures women on screen. is very much through the male gaze so i i was just very confounded it felt to me like maybe a male producer watched it and was like why would a man ever watch this movie please shoot it in a way to balance the appeal to men and women.
Chris: o
Nate Day: because Diane Lane did have that. Cross. appeal across genders because she was so beautiful it was fun to go watch a movie if you you know, watch her in a quote unquote, chick flick.
Nate Day: just because you were attracted to her, right? So... It was... just kind of the the critical reception of it i feel is a little bit bizarre and i wonder what was happening behind the scenes to...
Nate Day: lead to some of the things that Uh... some people found particularly It's weird. So...
Chris: Yeah. hmm
Nate Day: Yeah, just just kind of an interesting trend that I noticed, I guess. but Yeah, but that's pretty much it. That's kind of the movie. Like I said, it's just...
Nate Day: It's kind of just a movie. I don't... I didn't give it a great review or a bad review or anything. We'll get into that in a little bit here. but More interesting to look at. it in the context of all of these things like the history of Hollywood and Diane Lane's career and and early 2000s.
Nate Day: feminism and and some of those things more so than the the movie itself.
Chris: mm -hmm The movie itself, yeah.
Nate Day: Yeah. So. Fun stuff. But... Why don't we dive into our discussion questions? And why don't you start us off?
Chris: Yes, here I come. Also, I remembered what I could not earlier. The Etruscans.
Nate Day: Oh. Okay.
Chris: That was the...
Nate Day: Yep.
Chris: Pre.
Nate Day: Great.
Chris: pre -written history group that I couldn't remember that was there. Anyway, neither here nor there. So. First of all, Were you... Were you aware in any way of the significant departure from the book that the movie takes before you watched it?
Nate Day: No. Not at all.
Chris: Okay. Okay. So that was a surprise to you.
Nate Day: It was. And while I was watching the movie, I was very curious about how
Nate Day: I don't know just how reading the book was going, but you and I. avoid those conversations so that we can have them. here.
Chris: right Right. Yeah. No, I mean, it completely blindsided me reading the book.
Nate Day: Yeah.
Chris: I was I genuinely stopped multiple times to make sure I was reading the correct book.
Nate Day: Wow. Well... I mean, I can see why if it's basically like a DIY memoir. That's not how I would describe the movie.
Chris: no
Nate Day: No.
Chris: And like you said, the first 15 minutes, this dramatic divorce, her going to like find herself. And then I'm reading the book and it's.
Nate Day: Yeah.
Chris: Yep. Me and Ed are headed over to buy a house. yep like I kept waiting for them to break up because I was like, is that the angle?
Nate Day: Yeah.
Chris: Dude.
Nate Day: Oh, like that's the inspiration?
Chris: Do they separate while they're doing it or something?
Nate Day: Yeah.
Chris: Nope. There the whole time.
Nate Day: Nope. Huh. Yeah, I'm curious. I wonder if... i I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall when the producer and Francis were. in the room together? Like what, what really did recontextualize?
Nate Day: this for him.
Chris: Yeah.
Nate Day: You know if he passed on it before and then came back and was like well wait a second if we add a divorce and a
Chris: What what was the.
Chris: Right.
Nate Day: gay friend and you know all of this stuff, then it becomes a movie. And then I'm like, well, is it even under the Tuscan sun then?
Chris: Right.
Nate Day: just because it's set in Tuscany.
Chris: Is this even an adaptation anymore?
Nate Day: I don't know.
Chris: Well, that's... let me I'm just going to steamroll ahead into my second question then because it's so pertinent to this.
Nate Day: Great.
Chris: Why? we This is not the first time we've seen this.
Nate Day: Yeah.
Chris: From the filmmaker's perspective, what insight do you have of... Here's what happened in the book. I mean, even you already talked about. One battle after another, Vineland.
Chris: Some significant departures as well.
Nate Day: Mm -hmm. Yeah, yeah
Chris: whose call is that especially something like this where she was it was fairly quick
Nate Day: Mm hmm.
Chris: from publishing to being a movie. Almost certainly at least. talking to her.
Nate Day: Yeah.
Chris: Who do you think is making these calls? I mean in this case... Pretty obviously, it would have just been... Yeah, a serialized travel blog had they not added these.
Nate Day: Right.
Chris: Dramatic. turns. But why?
Nate Day: Yeah.
Chris: who's what In that case, if that's what you have to do to make it a movie, why turn this book into a movie?
Nate Day: Well, It was a bestselling. book like you said for quite a while so there that was a a way for Hollywood to avoid some risk, right?
Nate Day: Because it has a built -in audience.
Chris: you
Nate Day: It's very difficult right now, particularly, but it started in this era.
Chris: Okay.
Nate Day: It's very difficult to get an original story off the ground, which is why it becomes so exciting. when something like sinners or obsession makes a boatload of money because it is an original story that's not attached to
Chris: and
Nate Day: i mean even look at like the odyssey is based on intellectual property to some degree i mean it's obviously public domain and blah blah blah But that's something that we all knew.
Chris: But someone else made the bones. Mm hmm.
Nate Day: Right. So... I imagine they thought that between best -selling book and diane lane huge big major movie star
Nate Day: that they had You know, 18 million is not a huge budget for a movie either. This wasn't like a crazy. risk.
Chris: Mm hmm.
Nate Day: so It would have been the writer probably that pitched some of these changes to make it. more cinematic and I'm guessing I really didn't see anything about how... Maze feels about this movie.
Nate Day: I doubt she dislikes it. I don't know what... what there is to like really dislike about it. It's certainly very flattering to her.
Chris: I mean they had to buy the rights from her right?
Nate Day: Yes, but sometimes but that... the purchase usually comes before there's any draft or anything.
Chris: Oh, so you're saying, yeah, I suppose she could get the paycheck and still not like the final result.
Nate Day: Hey, right. But like I said, it's perfectly flattering to her. I can't imagine watching. this as the adaptation of your memoir and being disappointed in terms of how you look.
Nate Day: Maybe you could be like I would have loved a higher quality movie, but
Chris: Yes, yes.
Nate Day: At least the world thinks I'm a, you know. DIY. Home homemaking goddess. Right? like
Chris: Well, I mean, I i think. All of us. should and would be quite flattered to be told, oh, hey, you wrote the story of your life?
Nate Day: Yeah.
Chris: We're going to have Diane Lane play it.
Nate Day: Right. Right, and millions of people are going to...
Chris: I would be. I would be over the moon.
Nate Day: spend money on it. Yeah.
Chris: Yep.
Nate Day: Yeah.
Chris: Yep. Okay. A fair a fair assessment. i just It was so curious to me.
Nate Day: So that's why.
Chris: from my view, as not a filmmaker at all. Either. For some reason, it's very black and white in my mind, which clearly is not how it works, how anything works.
Chris: But to me, the idea as a producer would be. either this book has the strength to stand on its own or it's not.
Nate Day: Mhm.
Chris: the right story. And so I'm so... And I think that's what makes it actually, in a way, brilliant. that someone had the creativity to look at this and say, yeah, but if we a little here, a little here.
Nate Day: Mm hmm.
Chris: I mean, the movie's infinitely more exciting than the book.
Nate Day: Right.
Nate Day: I'm sure it is.
Chris: up.
Nate Day: Yeah, interesting. i mean That's... that's how it goes i mean hollywood is very risk averse so they're looking for anything
Chris: Right.
Nate Day: that you can that they can like point to as an indicator of of Success. So that's why.
Chris: I mean, a good point. It spends that long on the New York Times bestseller. Even if they all come out hating the movie.
Nate Day: Yeah.
Chris: If I have a book that I loved.
Nate Day: Right.
Chris: I'm gonna see the adaptation.
Nate Day: Yeah.
Chris: I'm going to go buy that first movie ticket at a minimum.
Nate Day: Mhm. Yep.
Chris: Okay.
Nate Day: Yep.
Chris: Interesting.
Nate Day: This, I feel like... you've kind of answered this one a little bit but i want to hear it more directly i was surprised like i said earlier that this is described as a rom -com because I don't think it has either or of those elements in spades. Did you think the book was funny?
Chris: Oh boy. Funnier than your average memoir? perhaps like if viewed in that genre I mean, this is coming off of reading Tina Fey's memoir, so an unfair scale.
Nate Day: I was going to say that's a funny memoir.
Chris: But in comparison, like yeah, if I'm holding up... Francis May's memoir next to Sally Field's memoir. Yes, much.
Chris: More humorous, I suppose.
Nate Day: and Okay.
Chris: i think that I think the title rom -com, and you would be more the expert on this than I, but in my eyes, as a... troglodyte in the film world rom -com equal lighthearted.
Chris: Not. challenging.
Nate Day: Yeah.
Chris: Right.
Nate Day: Yeah. I'm sure it was a marketing thing.
Chris: And it's clearly not a full blown comedy. no one's No one's looking at this and like waiting for Adam Sandler to pop up.
Nate Day: Right. Right. Thank God.
Chris: I don't know. Maybe he would have elevated this a little.
Nate Day: Maybe. I mean, I love the guy, but... I don't know if
Chris: Yeah. he
Nate Day: Would have been all that.
Chris: It's just...
Nate Day: Like, welcome. and
Chris: He's suddenly like the Italian guy selling them espresso.
Nate Day: yeah you're like what is going on
Chris: yeah i i i also was surprised that you said it that way but like
Chris: even Even as the individual who is sitting there bawling watching this, I wouldn't call it a drama.
Nate Day: Okay.
Chris: So I guess this is just the catch -all where it lands.
Nate Day: Yeah. the the leftovers.
Chris: Nothing better? yeah I mean, if you called it a biopic.
Nate Day: Yeah.
Chris: No one would have watched it.
Nate Day: No, they probably wouldn't have. but it Feels a little bit more accurate to me than... Romantic comedy.
Chris: I think biopic would be more accurate, but also... I would say, because I would, I have to imagine they had this discussion, right?
Nate Day: Probably.
Chris: in the making
Nate Day: Yeah. Yeah.
Chris: Who wants to see a biopic for a writer they've never heard of?
Nate Day: Yeah. I mean, except that it was a best -selling book.
Chris: But I'm saying in terms of... It would be like... The memoir you just saw and loved of Anthony Bourdain.
Nate Day: Yeah.
Chris: Coming out. mid -career Early career.
Nate Day: Sure.
Chris: In my mind.
Nate Day: Okay.
Chris: You know what I mean.
Nate Day: Yeah. Yeah.
Chris: And that's conjecture on my part. Perhaps people would have watched that as well, but I think it's far more impactful posthumously as we received it.
Nate Day: Yeah. Oh yeah. Totally.
Nate Day: Totally. Okay, cool. My other question. Where in the world would you want to buy and fix a rundown home if you could afford it? if money was no option.
Chris: Oh. Boy, I have fantasized about this a lot, to the to the point of like looking at building stages.
Nate Day: I know.
Chris: Oof.
Chris: You know what, since Watching me stare at my wall and think is not good audio or visual content. I'll walk you through my thought process.
Nate Day: okay
Chris: the The obvious choice is... As someone who's moved abroad a couple of times, you want to look at logistics of local language and then the power of the dollar there, right?
Nate Day: Yep. Sure.
Chris: So that's why a lot of what we see, I mean, I knew. Tons of expats who are buying property in Mexico. which was hilarious because ostensibly, legally, expats cannot buy land there. So you would have these...
Chris: seedy shady deals happening of them transferring large quantities of money to a local to then purchase purchase property
Nate Day: Oh.
Chris: that they You know, that sort of thing. I enjoyed my time in Mexico.
Nate Day: Yep.
Chris: I don't know that I would want to have a home there. I think the obvious answers are like what I described before. Rural France, rural Spain, rural Ireland. You know, they're all...
Chris: Just a sniff north of a six -hour flight from where I am now. Easy to see family.
Nate Day: Yeah. Mm -hmm.
Chris: accessible local languages. Ireland being the exception, the dollar goes a ways in those places. I think there's something so romanticized.
Nate Day: Sure.
Chris: about. I mean exactly what she did, this crazy villa. that you absolutely could not have here.
Nate Day: Mhm.
Chris: But some some of these listings, I mean, you'll be not surprised to know I subscribe to... a number of businesses. uh aimed directly at this topic.
Nate Day: Right.
Chris: And you will see these... i mean Italy has a very famous program for it. you can get a home for it.
Nate Day: Oh yeah.
Chris: One euro.
Nate Day: For like a hundred bucks, yeah.
Chris: uh but you are signing on to you have to commit to a certain amount of time to be there that it has to be your primary residence right these are economic stimulation programs
Nate Day: Right. Right.
Chris: So no one no one's doing this for the luxury penthouse condo in Milan itself.
Nate Day: Right.
Chris: Right, these are villages of 300 people in Sicily entire uninhabited islands with one lighthouse in the aran islands right uh which to me
Nate Day: Yep.
Chris: Sounds even more romantic. put in a giant woodworking shop, just a personal library with a thousand books.
Nate Day: Mm -hmm.
Chris: And I see another human once every three months.
Nate Day: Yep.
Nate Day: Yep. You would love that.
Chris: Yes. So for anyone looking, many options, come talk to me. There's also a very popular page right now, a lot of these in rural Japan. these already fully built houses with estates for a few thousand dollars.
Chris: Yeah, it's crazy. And that's why I say it's tough to view this book in the light of when she published it, because it is an entirely different field now.
Nate Day: Right. Yeah, it's an industry now, yeah.
Chris: Yes. I mean, and especially for teachers, especially for English teachers who have previously moved abroad to do that, there are entire businesses aimed directly at...
Nate Day: Oh yeah. Mm -hmm.
Chris: let's get you in a home overseas. The top 10 lists that I see on a weekly basis, easiest visas to get. Oh my gosh, barely 10 years after this movie came out. I don't know if you recall, like 2000...
Chris: I don't know, 15, 16 -ish. Greece's economy was so in the dumps. You could basically... Bye. a passport it was like you put up 10 000 cash as in uh well economic investment, societal investment, something like that.
Nate Day: Mm hmm.
Chris: And you just get the passport, which now in modernity, I don't know if this was the case in the mid -90s, but in the year of our Lord, 2026, the Schengen region, you have a passport to one of those countries.
Chris: That's a golden ticket, access to all of them.
Nate Day: Right.
Chris: Where for everybody else, you can only be within that region for 180 out of any given 365 days. Yeah, it's a massive business now.
Nate Day: Sure.
Chris: so tough tough question that you gave me that was lighthearted and I should have responded as such, but I am me.
Nate Day: That's true, but that's exactly why I put it in because I know i knew you would have a... aneurism right on camera.
Chris: I've thought about this much What about you, someone who sees very different online content?
Nate Day: Uh...
Chris: Unlimited money. in one country.
Nate Day: I don't know, Stockholm. any Just any anywhere?
Chris: You are so boring. You suck.
Nate Day: What do you mean boring? I loved it there.
Chris: give me Give me some Exposition!
Nate Day: Uh...
Chris: Paint me a picture.
Nate Day: Okay, my family is...
Chris: Why? So you can go to the Apple Museum every day?
Nate Day: Yeah, exactly. I would love to go to the ABBA Museum every day. My family is very Swedish and I grew up. with with that being a very prominent part of our.
Nate Day: i guess heritage i mean it's not like we did anything except that we're swedish but but
Chris: And meatballs, meatballs.
Nate Day: so Yeah, we we have a... A few recipes, I suppose. And then a few years ago, my sister and I went. to celebrate her graduation from nursing school. and we had a blast and it's a beautiful place and the people are nice and the food is good and the weather's good and And it's not America. and
Nate Day: I don't know. Everything is like the right amount of old. you know And...
Chris: Yeah.
Nate Day: Every single human there was the best looking human I've ever seen in my life. And...
Chris: baffling right
Nate Day: Heh.
Chris: An entire country of them.
Nate Day: I know. And. i just liked it and i'm just trying to think of I've i've only been to... I don't know eight or something other countries, and and a lot of them.
Nate Day: didn't leave quite this strong impression on me or or I've been to Italy and it was like a lot of work to be an American there they don't really care about learning English which is great you know That's fine. But then when you go to Sweden and everybody learns English.
Nate Day: as their second language you're like oh god it's actually really freaking easy to be here yeah
Chris: like grammatically more correct than yours. Yep.
Nate Day: So it was just a place, yeah, that I felt a good. a connection to like a place that I would consider living more so. But I, you know, I also really liked Spain.
Nate Day: A lot.
Chris: o Mm hmm.
Nate Day: So I could do that. I don't know It's just somewhere, just somewhere, you know?
Chris: Yeah. Yeah.
Nate Day: Flip it Move on. Maybe.
Nate Day: Right? Flip it, sell it and move on.
Chris: How American.
Nate Day: Yeah.
Chris: No!
Nate Day: Why?
Chris: You go establish an estate, a dynasty. I love that hers had a name.
Nate Day: I don't need that.
Chris: What was it?
Nate Day: The house, the manor.
Chris: Here. Boring.
Nate Day: I don't need a dynasty.
Chris: Yes, Brahma Sole. Brahma sole! Give me
Nate Day: They're going to change it after I move anyway.
Chris: What did they call? us Skyfall, right? Isn't that the name of his family's estate?
Nate Day: Yeah. I think. Something like that, yeah.
Chris: So dope! Give me a house with a name.
Nate Day: Well... You can name your apartment right now.
Chris: With a library with ghosts.
Chris: We did name the living room the jewelry box.
Nate Day: the jewelry box I think that's good for maybe the whole house
Chris: Yeah
Chris: Okay, that's the name. Okay, so let it be christened.
Nate Day: christened. get it
Nate Day: See, it's that easy. And now you have a house with a name.
Chris: Okay, well, tell me your rating.
Nate Day: okay I gave it 2 .5 stars. I thought it was... It felt like a... soap opera like a daytime soap opera you know where they like close the door and the whole wall shakes i was like
Chris: Correct.
Nate Day: Come on. What is going on here? Script is pretty mindless, but it is like... warm and fuzzy. You know, I understand why all of those reviews said all of the polite things that they did because it's not.
Chris: Yes.
Nate Day: It has a good enough message. that I... you know If she'd ended up like dying at the end of this, I'd be like, what the fuck was this movie?
Chris: specific
Nate Day: But she doesn't, so it's fine. Middle of the road. What about you?
Chris: There. Okay, fair. very much along the same lines again i won't repeat my my personal stringent goodreads rules every single episode but this was exactly a three and that was generous And again, due to the context and the age, this is almost exclusively because this is simply not where I would go for this content. If I wanted just travel and the wandering around, I want Rick Steves.
Chris: Right. If I want a book of Italian recipes, I want Stanley Tucci. Uh... I'm... Confident saying that this is a product. Uh...
Chris: these These thoughts are the product of when I consumed. Hehehe. Uh, this material. And I probably would have found it equally groundbreaking.
Nate Day: Yeah.
Chris: 30 years ago, but that's not. When we live, we're here and now.
Nate Day: Yep. True. Who do you recommend it to?
Chris: I don't see myself recommending this to anyone. i don' like My mom, maybe if someone's... uh but Deep hypothetical. Maybe someone is planning to go on a tour of... rural Tuscany, and they could treat this as a primer. But again,
Chris: In that case, I would point them to like Lonely Planet. Yeah, I don't know. i would I do not foresee myself recommending this book to a single individual.
Nate Day: Yeah, I'm sort of in a similar boat I feel like if... If you're the kind of person that I would. recommend this to you've probably already seen it because it is such a key film and Diane Lane's filmography and she for a while was sort of the queen of this.
Nate Day: kind of filmmaking. So...
Chris: Yep.
Nate Day: Uh, i i i said if you like eat pray love you'll like this because it's basically like Pre -eat. Pray, love.
Chris: for you. Pre -eat.
Nate Day: Preet Pre -eat, pre -eat, pre -eat. Yeah, I don't have a ton of...
Chris: That's so crazy because I recommend... that movie to a thousand people.
Nate Day: Eat, pray, love.
Chris: No, no No. Under the Tuscan sun.
Nate Day: Oh, Tuscan Sun. Yes, you do tend to, once you have... one or two beers and you start talking about how much you love this movie.
Chris: Cross -solidize.
Nate Day: Yeah.
Chris: Yep.
Nate Day: prosilletize that's That's exactly what you do. But. that is our discussion on under the tuscan sun i will continue to make fun of chris for it Because once again, that's the kind of friend that I am. But.
Nate Day: I think you knew that when you signed up.
Nate Day: Our next episode will be about this boy's life, not me. But this boy's life. by Tobias Wolff. with a film adaptation by Michael Caton Jones.
Nate Day: Starring Robert De Niro. And... Leonardo DiCaprio. And we'll have a very special guest. Chris is... buddy and bandmate and New York.
Nate Day: Dude. Right?
Chris: Yep.
Nate Day: great
Chris: Yep.
Nate Day: Great. Thank you for listening. Thank you for watching. and we'll see you next time
Chris: Bye.
