Coup de foudre en Toscane

I completely fell in love with this movie. Every once in a while a movie comes along that touches your heart and soul. The Shadow Dancer is such a film. I saw it at the incredible ancient amphitheatre in Sicily at the Taormina Film Festival with an audience of some three thousand people and was completely swept up in the story... and I was not alone. Several times during the screening the audience broke out in spontaneous applause.

This film is for anyone who has ever dreamed. It follows the story of Jeremy (Joshua Jackson) a young writer who works for an English publishing house. Jeremy dreams of being a novelist but can't quite get past his fear of making the commitment needed to do so. He is sent to Italy to find a world-famous reclusive writer Weldon Parish (Harvey Keitel) and convince him to write again. What follows is a journey of exploration as Weldon tries to break Jeremy out of his shell, forcing him to experience life… but the sword cuts both ways as Jeremy tries to make Weldon face his own fears.

Keitel is absolutely fantastic as the older writer afraid he can never be what he once was. It is definitely his best performance since The Piano. He makes you laugh with his crazy antics, but let's you see deep enough inside him to realise it is all a front to hide the pain he feels at not being able to write.

Jackson in the much more understated role shows that there is life after 'Dawson's Creek'. The character of Jeremy is a long way off from Pacey Witter and he shows that he has made the move to the big screen with confidence.

Claire Forlani (looking absolutely gorgeous) plays Weldon's daughter and Jeremy's love interest. The chemistry between them works very well. Giancarlo Giannini is the village priest and is absolutely wonderful.

The look of the movie is stunning. Golden light and shadows in a little village tucked away in the Tuscan hills. Brad Mirman has created a world that invites you in and makes you feel at times as if you are there with them. The characters endear themselves to you and pull you into their lives. You laugh with them, cry with them, sharing each emotional turn in the story. There are scenes in the film where you definitely want to have a tissue handy and others where you may need a towel.

In my movie-going experience very few films have moved me like this one did. For me movies are about moments. If you have enough of them to take away with you your memories of a film are good. The Shadow Dancer is filled with many of these moments. It has only been a few days since I saw it, but the thoughts and images from the film have stayed with me. Surely, that's the best testament there is to a great film. (10/10)

I also saw this movie at one of the advance screenings. This is my first time posting on this site, but after seeing this film I had to. I have always loved Italy, in particular, Tuscany. This movie captures the feel of small village life perfectly. Being a huge Joshua Jackson fan I was eager to see the film and I was not disappointed. Jackson and Keitel are wonderful together and the story of this young, reserved writer who is afraid to follow his heart and the older writer who is afraid he cannot be what he once was is magical.

We all live our lives with, hopes, dreams and desires and somehow through time they seem to fade away. This movie deals with the courage it takes to truly follow your heart and do the things you love most.

Of course it is more than that, because Jackson's character also falls in love with Keitels daughter... but will he find the strength and conviction to make it work?

The scenery is fantastic. Ah, Tuscany, the golden light, the stone buildings. Itr is almost as if the village they filmed in is another character in the movie. The lighting is wonderful, filled with shadows... but the key to the movie rests with the performances of Jackson, Keitel and Claire Forlani. Also the actors who play the priest and hotel owner are wonderful.

This is not a big movie... not a huge budget movie... it is a simple story about life... love... and finding it within yourself to reach out and take hold of the things that are most important.

A truly enjoyable movie

It is predictable, it has a lot of clichés, it doesn't aspire to be even nearer to what would be called a great film, or even a good one - or even a hit -, but its dialogues are fine and truthful, and reveal an experienced knowledge of a writer's craft and soul and suffering.

As the comment above put it, it's a film of real people with real problems, apparently common and minor problems to the viewer who expects to extract some titillation out of films - the characters here are not involved in intrigues, in hiding a murder or escape from it -, but problems hard enough for those involved. As we learn somewhere: there is no order of difficulty in problems, one is not "harder" or "bigger" than another. They are all the same.

The great psychologist Viktor Frankl, who spent four years in a concentration camp, tells in "Man's Search for Meaning", in an almost candid way, that his terrible sufferings there at the camp doesn't amount to anything bigger than anyone's. He makes a perfect analogy, and with the most frightening element an inmate of a concentration camp could think of: "A man's suffering is similar to the behaviour of gas. If a certain quantity of gas is pumped into an empty chamber, it will fill the chamber completely and evenly. Thus suffering completely fills the human soul and conscious mind, no matter whether the suffering is great or little. Therefore the 'size' of human suffering is absolutely relative".

Well, it seems a lot of thinking to draw from such an unpretentious film, but I think in that resides its merits. Keitel's outstanding performance adds a lot to it, it's on a level much higher than the whole production. It's amazing how great actors can have some of their great moments in lesser films, as Keitel here, or as Morgan Freeman unique, out-of-bounds performance in "Street Wise".

I see this movie at the festival at Cannes. I liked it very, very much. It is a very charming and moving story of love, loss and passion. It is funny, but also very emotional and it capture nicely the feeling of Tuscana.

Harvey Keitel plays very well the older writer and you can feel the pain in him for not being able to write. Joshua Jackson (who I am a great fan) is excellent as the young writer afraid to open his heart to writing and life. Claire Forlani is beautiful as the girl he falls in love with and Giancarlo Gianinni... well it is Giancarlo Gianinni a very great actor. I also like very much all the other little characters who live in the little village. They give very much credibility to the film, but the real story is with Keitel and Jackson and there journey together. It is here two men struggle to find the way to their dreams. 'Chi cerca trova'.

It would seem that you just can't please some people if the last review of this movie I read is deemed to be correct. As I was unable to find this movie on DVD locally I bought it from overseas.

I loved the story. OK, so it is a feel good movie, it doesn't contain violence, its not action packed and it won't give you the answers to life, the universe and everything, BUT it is a great movie for a rainy Sunday afternoon. It is filled with humour, wit and a touch of tenderness. It both puts a smile on your face and can bring a tear to the eye. The cinematography is beautiful, the actors are well cast, the dialogue snappy. Having watched this several times with friends and family, everyone has enjoyed it and its well worth the time.