Review of A Good Year (2006) by Jeff B — 07 Mar 2011

During A Good Year, director Ridley Scott's by-the-numbers adaptation of Peter Mayle's novel about a Londoner out-of-water in provincial France, the audience is actually treated to a reading of the line "Your money or your life?" When posed to Jack Benny, the result elicits pure comedy. When posed to a heartless financier who takes an unlikely turn as rom-com leading man, however, the result tastes somewhat flat, like having an expensive Pinot Noir poured out of a box. Having already sat through 3/4 of this predictable romp better suited as a Travel Channel documentary of the French wine country, the audience certainly knew what was coming.

Conceptually suggested to Mayle by Scott himself, R-rated kinda sorta comedy A Good Year stars Crowe as cutthroat London bond trader Max Skinner who, while under investigation for fraud, inherits a vineyard from his late loving uncle (Finney), only to realize that he had spent the only happy years of his life there as a boy.

There is, of course, a cat and mouse romance with a smoking hot French babe (Marion Cotillard). There is, of course, a pratfall-laden cockfight with the estate's worrisome winemaker (Didier Bourdon). There is, of course, the melting of Skinner's icy heart by all of this. While not the worst of the genre, A Good Year ironically strives to succeed because of the awesome resumes of its Gladiator-bred, testosterone-heavy principals, Crowe (Cinderella Man) and Scott (Kingdom of Heaven). In trying to tackle material better served by the late Billy Wilder and Jack Lemmon, this pair seem as much fish-out-of-water as Skinner.

Bottom line: Like dining in a 4-star restaurant...and being served Box-o-Wine.