Up at the Villa

A woman left alone by the death of her husband finds her love life has become suddenly and dangerously complicated in this drama. Mary Panton (Kristin Scott Thomas) is a British woman living in Italy in 1938 who has been financially ruined by the death of her husband. Edgar (James Fox), an aging ...more

Up at the Villa is the type of British period piece that used to get made all the time, but lost its sense of urgency and had become something of an anomaly by the year 2000. There's nothing especially unskilled about it, but the result is just ho-hum. Director Philip Haas gets off on the right foot by casting the luminous Kristin Scott Thomas as a widower in search of a suitable match, but Thomas submits a performance that's emotionally reserved and squeamish, as though she's in constant fear ...more