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(About Our Ads) "UP AT THE VILLA" (2000) (Kristin Scott Thomas, Sean Penn) (PG-13) If you've come from our parental review of this film and wish to return to it, simply click on your browser's BACK button. Otherwise, use the following link to read our complete Parental Review of this film. QUICK TAKE: Drama: A beautiful, but penniless British widow finds her world turned upside down when her involvement with various men, including a one-night stand with one of them, leads to unexpected repercussions in pre-WWII Italy. PLOT: It's 1938 Florence and Mary Panton (KRISTIN SCOTT THOMAS) is widowed and penniless English woman who's currently living at an acquaintances' villa. Things aren't so bleak for Mary, however, as Sir Edgar Swift (JAMES FOX), a near lifelong friend of hers who's about to be appointed Governor of Bengal, asks for her hand in marriage. Mary isn't so much concerned about the two and half decade difference in their ages as much as the fact that she doesn't deeply love him, and thus asks for several days to think over her reply. Mary's jaded and older friend, the Princess San Ferdinando (ANNE BANCROFT), thinks she's putting too much emphasis on love and that she should instead consider the social position such a marriage would provide her. Besides, the Princess states that if Mary became bored in such an arrangement, she could simply take lovers as she once did. With Edgar away on business and still contemplating his proposal, Mary meets three men at one of the Princess' parties who will forever change her life. First, there's Rowley Flint (SEAN PENN), a married American playboy with a bad reputation and penchant for hitting on the ladies, including Mary. Then there's Beppino Leopardi (MASSIMO GHINI), a Fascist official who acts courteous, but seems to have a disdain for the aristocratic foreigners. Finally, there's Karl Richter (JEREMY DAVIES), an Austrian refugee brought in at the last moment to entertain the party's dinner guests. Unfortunately, his violin playing is quite bad, and while the others make fun of him, Mary feels bad for the chap. Later, after Rowley berates her for considering partaking in a loveless marriage, and that it would be a bad thing for her, Mary decides to have a one-night fling with Karl, hoping their encounter would brighten his otherwise sad life, and thus make her feel better about herself. Much to her surprise, it does much more than that. As such, Mary suddenly finds herself involved in a situation that becomes progressively more volatile with each action she takes, and must then figure out what to do to set things straight before Edgar returns as she drags others into the mess she's created. OUR TAKE: 5.5 out of 10 While the famous battles and Holocaust related issues obviously get the most attention as far as films set in WWII are concerned - essentially because they have the most recognizable and easy to present conflict and drama -- other pieces of the war are just as intriguing. One of them is the pre-war activity that took place in Italy as Mussolini jockeyed his country via fascism while European expatriates reacted to the sudden changing tide. Franco Zeffirelli's 1999 film, "Tea With Mussolini," obviously used that as the underlying plot for its story, although the results were only moderately interesting. Now "Up at the Villa" follows suit, although it really only uses the historical context of Italy's progressive mutation as an interesting backdrop for its story. Based on the 1940 novella by W. Somerset Maugham (who also penned "Of Human Bondage" and "The Razor's Edge"), the film is a tale of the aftereffects of a one-night stand, and thus comes off as something of a pre-WWII version of "Fatal Attraction," where the jilted lover isn't happy with the liaison later being deemed as a singular event. Featuring solid performances from its cast, gorgeous scenery and "Masterpiece Theater" type settings, as well as an interesting, if not terribly intriguing overall plot, the film is certainly easy to watch. That said, it never quite turns into the great romantic thriller/drama hybrid that it's seemingly aiming to be. It certainly turns into something far different than how it begins, which is as a well-made, if somewhat staid period romantic drama. As crafted by the husband and wife filmmaking team of Philip (the director) and Belinda Haas (the writer and editor) - who were responsible for 1995's "Angels and Insects" (also starring this film's leading lady) - the story unfolds at a leisurely pace as we learn the necessary particulars about the main characters. Due to the terrific cast, the interplay between them, and the intelligent dialogue they're given to speak, the film comes off as moderately intriguing as we wonder where the story's going to lead us. Then, quite unexpectedly, but credibly, the film suddenly shifts gears and turns into a "what hath we wrought" plot where the characters turn a bad event into something worse and then try to bury it and the ensuing problems that then arise. That certainly jacks up the proceedings and initially makes things more interesting, but the film never quite manages to hit and/or maintain its full stride down the homestretch of becoming a completely satisfactory film. Of course, that isn't to suggest that it turns into a bad film, but the fact that it lacks any real energy - in either the romance or thriller departments -- unnecessarily grounds the picture. What makes it work, however, is the casting of those main characters and the performances delivered by the actors and actresses inhabiting them. Kristin Scott Thomas ("Random Hearts," "The English Patient"), who's edging toward becoming typecast as "the other woman" due to the nature of many of the characters she's played, is quite good in the role, bringing a clearly defined intelligence mixed with credible loneliness and uncertainty to the part. Previous Oscar nominee Sean Penn ("Sweet and Lowdown," "Dead Man Walking") continues to impress with his performance here as a character who turns out to have more depth than initially imagined, making it ever more difficult to picture that he once played (albeit brilliantly) the dimwitted surfer dude Jeff Spicoli in "Fast Times At Ridgemont High" nearly twenty years ago. Meanwhile, five-time Oscar nominee Anne Bancroft ("The Graduate" and a victory for "The Miracle Worker") and James Fox ("Mickey Blue Eyes," "A Passage to India") bring the proper "old school" air to the proceedings, while Jeremy Davies ("Saving Private Ryan," "The Locusts") and Massimo Ghini ("Tea With Mussolini," "The Truce") believably inhabit the film's more volatile characters. Overall, the film will probably play differently to different viewers. Some will be enraptured by the old style performances and plot, whereas others may find the film never truly escaping the staid trappings that overlay the proceedings, no matter the sudden chance of the plot from period romance to would-be thriller. My view of "Up at the Villa" falls somewhere in the middle of that range, thus explaining the 5.5 out of 10 rating it receives. Reviewed April 24, 2000 / Posted May 5, 2000