Up at the Villa

Mary Panton (Kristin Scott Thomas) is enjoying life as an expat Brit in a villa just outside Florence in 1938. She`s a widow with not much money which is why she has to think deeply about the offer of marriage she`s just received from Sir Edgar Swift (James Fox.) She doesn`t love him but he will be able to offer her not only stability but prestige and luxury in life. She has a few days to think about it while he`s away. Her friend the Princessa San Ferdinando (Anne Bancroft) thinks there`s no decision to make. It`s what she did and look at her now. But she makes the mistake of placing Mary next to Rowley Flint (Sean Penn) at one of her dinner parties... Based on a novella by Somerset Maugham and adapted by Belinda Haas, wife of the director Phillip Haas, Up at the Villa is every so slightly anachronistic. Do you play safe and marry for security or do you throw caution to the winds and follow your heart. And central to the story is the integrity of Mary herself who through one act of seeming kindness introduces tragedy and danger as well as potential scandal to the story. Impeccably performed by Scott Thomas and Penn - he is extraordinarily good as Rowley - and by Anne Bancroft who`s tremendously enjoyable there is a vague air of depression about the film as if it can smell the mothballs. It`s almost like a recipe, place a group of upper class expats in a beautiful Italian city just before the outbreak of war and stir.David`s comments:A none-too-convincing film, based on a Somerset Maughan novella and set, like TEA WITH MUSSOLINI, in pre-war Florence. Jeremy Davies is particularly unconvincing in a key role as the Austrian refugee who spends one night with English widow Kristin Scott Thomas - acting honours are stolen by Sean Penn, very smooth as a helpful American.