This subtle and sensuous drama revolves around the sexual coming of age of a 19-year-old American girl. Shortly after her mother's suicide, Lucy (Liv Tyler in a compelling performance) arrives in Tuscany for a visit with an artist (Donal McCann), his wife (Sinead Cusack), and their villa houseguests. She hopes these friends of her mother will tell her the identity of her real father. Lucy's virginal state and her interest in poetry is especially interesting to Alex (Jeremy Irons), a terminally ill playwright.
The drama written by novelist Susan Minot vividly conveys Lucy's ambivalent feelings about sex and the uneasiness of her elders in the presence of such youthful beauty and innocence. Stealing Beauty demonstrates that director Bernardo Bertolucci (The Last Emperor, The Sheltering Sky) is as adept at intimate drama as he is with epic productions.
