RyothChatty ridiculous rating

NekoHomey Purely Joyful Movie!

Mjeteconer Just perfect...

BoardChiri Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

amphioxus-p All the delightful characters, so well developed, and the mystery sub-plot, perhaps help us old fellers feel not so guilty about watching teen Liv Tyler sport about in short, filmy dresses, or less. Yep, she's gorgeous. But where will this movie go? Will it follow its intrigues and conflicts to their resolutions, and thus show that it is more about story than underwear? As the answer to Juicy Lucy's mystery brings us to further interpersonal conflicts, will these be heeded? Unfortunately not. In the postscript to Lolita, Nabakov defines pornography (very soft, and quite pleasant, here) as successive escalations of eroticism to climax. Ultimately, in Stealing Beauty, that escalation takes over, as the director kills all art-house soap opera with the deflowering of his own movie's purported innocence, and with rather sudden ideal romance. Shouldn't we see a bit more flirtation between Lucy and her true love? As in even this softest porn, the rule is that story and character play second fiddle to sex. Story ends when the sculptor tells Lucy, 'This will be our secret.' He doesn't have to tell his wife! His wife isn't even more strongly driven to return to Ireland. Lucy has to continue to pretend she is merely a visitor. Doesn't she want to tell her sister, "You are my half-sister?" All that gets dropped, for a bit of sim-sex, that is supposed to feel like a climax.Oh, yeah, and the three long-distance shots of the villa: It was a little disconcerting to keep seeing Gladiator Maximus's villa, supposedly in Spain, here in Tuscany. But for a place 2000 years old, it was well preserved.

stick525 This is my favorite movie ever!!! Liv Tyler, Jeremy Irons, and the rest of the cast are excellent in this movie. The Tuscan scenery is gorgeous. It makes you wish you were there. I loved the story. The more you watch it the more you love it because you appreciate the surroundings, the music, the beautiful story. The only thing I had a hard time with was the beginning and how it related to the rest of the story. Also, I am usually not a fan of soundtracks, but the Stealing Beauty soundtrack is perfect!!!. I love the eclectic mix of music. The movie and the soundtrack deserve recognition. I can't believe how many people have not heard of this movie.

mario_c Lucy (played by Liv Tyler) is a 19 American girl which travels to Italy after her mother die. She's coming back to a farmhouse where her mother lived once. It's not the first time she's going there, she had been there four years earlier, so she knows almost everyone in the house. She's young, she's beautiful, she's very attractive, but she's also very innocent and… virgin. Every man in the house, from the older to younger, feel her presence and enjoy it, on one or another way, because she's everything but invisible. Her presence is really noticed, but she's not provocative at all. In fact she's very calm and shy. The entire plot is about her, her feelings, people which surround her, and the way she's growing as a woman. It's all that together what makes this movie so beautiful and intimate, because it's a portrait of the fears and hopes, disillusions and happiness, joy and anger of a teenage girl which is having some "feelings" for the very first time.I enjoyed the story but also the settings used, because it's all so peaceful and calm, it's all so quiet in that lost place somewhere in Italy… The cinematography is beautiful and has this "special touch" European cinema use to have, with those little details which turn the movie so truthful and realistic. I like it a lot! About the acting I must say I enjoyed especially two characters and the respective actors who played them. They were the character "Lucy", played by Liv Taylor and "Alex", played by Jeremy Irons. It's especially those two characters which make this story so beautiful to me.To sum up, it's a simple but wonderful movie and another excellent work by Bernardo Bertolucci.

lastliberal Liv Tyler's (Armageddon, LOTR trilogy) mother has just committed suicide and she goes to Tuyscany to visit her mother's friends in a coming-of-age adventure. Director Bernardo Bertolucci (The Last Emporer) strive to bring out in Tyler what is probably her best screen performance.This was Joseph Fiennes' (Shakespher in Love) first film role, and one of the first for Rachel Weisz (The Constant Gardener, The Mummy).With a great performance by Jeremy Irons (Elizabeth I, Reversal of Fortune), this film is a story about life and death and the search for who you are. It is character focused. Some of the best parts are gatherings where you just watch the characters interact.A good European film for those looking for quality, not action.