Shadows In The Sun

Rating NR Formats DVD Genre drama Starring Joshua Jackson, Harvey Keitel, Claire Forlani, John Rhys-Davies, Giancarlo Giannini Directed by Brad Mirman Publisher Walt Disney External Links Official Shadows In The Sun Website Official Walt Disney Website

The story goes something like this. Weldon Parish (Harvey Keitel), once a notable writer is now a recluse that refuses to write his coveted novels, one of which is called the "The Shadow Dancer" in the film. Jeremy (Joshua Jackson) under his publishing boss' orders, travels to Tuscany to convince Weldon to start writing again; but the trouble starts from the first encounter.

Weldon pretends to be a lunatic and shuns Joshua away, almost as if giving him a test to pass. He lets his Rotweiler chase after him, gets him drunk, and throws him in a lake just to make Jeremy leave.

But during this initiation of some sort, Jeremy pours his heart out to Weldon, letting him know that he too wants to be a writer, but he's afraid of failure before he even starts. Weldon, on the hand, doesn't want to write anymore because he's also afraid of meeting his once greatness as a writer. So once this cat is out of the bag, they start to bond as friends. At about the same time, Jeremy starts to fall for Weldon's daughter, Isabella (Claire Forlani) whom I thought was excellent with her accent.

Harvey Keitel does an excellent job (as expected) as a lunatic writer as does Joshua Jackson, for his stoic, but wooden and not-so-emotionally engaging character in this film. But the cheesiest part is when Joshua is on the train to leave to London, Claire Forlani follows the train on a horseback with an extra horse on her side, then Joshua pulls an emergency brake on the train to stop, joins her on the horse with a kiss, as we tilt up to the sky shot. (It is more cheesier than the oldest Italian cheese from that village)

Producers tried to sell the film as "In the tradition of Under the Tuscan Sun." However, even without having seen the Tuscan, one can assume it's a light love story set in the beautiful countryside of Italy.

It is a simple story that can be told in one paragraph, ready? "Young editor from a publishing company is ordered to sign a genius, yet reclusive writer, but ends up learning about life and falls in love with the writer's daughter." Bellisimo!!!