The story has old-fashioned characters and situations, and Haas has sensibly filmed it in an old-fashioned way, stressing visual appeal rather than the story's sordid undertones. The acting is excellent, too.

Is a chamber romance, in that there's nothing grand or sweeping about it, but it's got all the style it needs to go with those glorious Tuscan settings.

All of Haas' movies have an air of weirdness and dread, and this one is no exception. But it's romantic as well.

It's a corker of a story - a polished yarn full of desire, desperation and despair.

A refined, tasteful film about pure, hard lust.

This whole movie is about manners. There is sex and violence, but the movie is not about giving in to them; it's about carrying on as if they didn't exist.

In the most extreme moments, Thomas hits her career pinnacle.

This least affected of their (Haases) movies is also the most dramatically and emotionally convincing.

Scott Thomas and Penn finally develop a bit of unlikely chemistry, aided by the Hitchcockian atmosphere. I found myself rooting for these foolish, pampered, naïve people, and rooting for the movie as well.

A charmingly mounted, period romantic drama that benefits from the performances of a fine ensemble cast and the lovely location settings of Florence and Tuscany.

It has some wonderful moments and a handful of delicious Maughamian characters.

It's low-grade Casablanca - an ill-fated love affair, rife with murder and deceit, with World War II as a backdrop and a farewell scene that has something to do with getting to Paris.

If you're paying close attention, there is reason enough to find Up at the Villa a fascinating experience, almost an experiment in some ways, but it's not a fully realized work of cinema.

Moderately pleasing adaptation of the W. Somerset Maugham novella.