A Vintage Not Uncommon

Film: A Good Year
Cast: Russell Crowe, Albert Finney, Freddie Highmore
Director: Ridley Scott

How many times have we heard it before? Rich, successful, insensitive man-of-the-town learns that the good things in life are got away from the big, bad city, when man and nature commune. It’s a fable worthy of Aesop. So, how is A Good Year different? The answer – it isn’t.

Max is a big player in the London Stock Exchange. Insanely successful, incredibly unpopular and couldn’t care a hoot either way. One day a letter arrives informing him of his Uncle Henry’s (Finney) death. Max inherits his uncle’s estate, a chateau and vineyard in France. As a child, Max had spent many a happy summer there, but now he has no use for the place or the memories. He travels to France to sell the place, but hindrances arise in the form of Max’s illegitimate daughter Christie (Abbie Cornish), a beautiful bistro owner Fanny (Marion Cotillard), the chateau’s undrinkable wine, and a series of memories that refuse to fade.

I’m no Russell Crowe fan, but I don’t deny his talent. He brings an impishness that makes Max very likeable. Abbie Cornish and Marion Cotillard make up cute scenery, nothing more. The film’s best moments are when Albert Finney and the amazingly talented Freddie Highmore, who plays young Max, get together.

A Good Year is just an ordinary film. Philippe Le Sourd’s fabulous cinematography is matched by Marc Klein’s lifeless screenplay. Sensitive performances stand against immature characterisations. There is nothing in it to suggest that A Good Year is a film that merits the attention of a Russell Crowe. But the only thing that Crowe has done recently that merits any attention is throwing telephones at people. So, the twain get along.