Review of A Good Year (2006) by David M — 14 Oct 2011

The only thing worse than a bad movie, is a bad movie that could've been good. That is entirely the case with a Good Year. With the superb Scott/Crowe partnership trying their hand at a wistful romantic comedy, set in the French countryside.

That promising premise results in a train wreck of a film. With terribly flat editing that sucks the humor away from every scene, an unbalanced screenplay, too many unnecessary characters, and a woefully miscast Crowe, everything is wrong.

I don't know that I've seen editing that was worse for comedy before. It's atrocious, especially considering one of the quotes from te film is comedy is all about timing. This exemplifies bad timing. The tone is also very dreary, which kills the humor, and the French setting. Downbeat is ok for third acts in romcoms but not the wholething.

Russell Crowe is all wrong here. Maybe he can be funny, but he fails at the slapstick, and doesn't have enough energy. He's too intense and focuses on the callousness instead of making that trait funny. This role calls for Jude Law, Ewan McGregor, or Hugh Grant. Crowe is too gruff to be a slick biz exec, and too serious to be light hearted.

The saving grace of the film us Marion Cotillard, who is the only one who gets it. Unfortunately, her character, and the love story, are but a side note. And the arch of the love doesn't start until the third act, and is rushed from one date to a happily ever after in all of 20 minutes.

Albert Finney is also miscast as a suave older man, when someone like Michael Caine would've been better. The flashbacks are also distracting, and out of place. The plethora of side characters include the caretakers of the house, a long lost daughter, a personal assistant, another coworker, a real estate agent on top of all the characters listed already.

Good Year is an unfortunate failure. I really believed this could've been another hidden gem, like Natchstick Men, in Scottsdale filmography. It's hidden, but more like a dirty secret.