|
|
|
||
  
Back
Shelf Beauties |
A Good Year You can imagine
the pitch meeting went something like this.
Russell Crowe’s agent and publicity team
tell him he needs to rehab his
image. Crowe swears
that he’s just an
actor and doesn’t care about image. It’s the work
that matters, so damn the
press and let’s focus on something substantial and Oscar
worthy! Then,
director Ridley Scott calls up Crowe
and says, “Mate, you want to spend a few weeks on a French
vineyard making a
lot of money to do a frothy, barely-have-to-exert-an-effort romp where
you get
drink fine wine all day and roll around with a hot French
babe?” That’s
where Crowe says to his team, “I think
I found the project that will help my image.”
Crowe stars as
Max Skinner – the stereotypical, shark-like, dirty, greedy
bastard financial
trader who will do anything to make a buck, even if it means skirting
ethics
and the law to do it. One
day, after
pulling off a doozy of a deal, Max is told that his old, beloved and
estranged
Uncle Harry (Albert Finney) has passed away without leaving a will. According to French law,
all of his
possessions, including the French vineyard where Max spent his youth,
have been
awarded to the man who has left all of those lessons of gentility and
decency behind. Max
heads off to France to do a quick
assessment of the place, so he can claim it and sell it off as quickly
as
possible, but, along the way, he starts to remember those magical years
with
Uncle Henry, meets a hot French babe, and starts to wonder what he
really wants
to do with his life (hot French babes have that effect on men). Will Max sell
off the vineyard? What
will happen to
the workers, and the mysterious woman who shows up in our story (Abbie
Cornish
AKA that woman who allegedly, according to unsubstantiated rumors broke
up
Reese Witherspoon’s marriage)?
When did Crowe
morph into Jimmy Fallon? You
practically
can see Crowe screaming to the audience, “Don’t you
like me? I really
really want you to like me.”
Sadly, I am sure Crowe can be very charming,
funny and romantic in real life, but he’s none of those
things in A
Good Year.
Not even close.
The movie is a
horrible attempt at being lighthearted and comical as every pratfall,
one-liner
and plot twist is exceedingly stale, stiff and telegraphed with a side
order of
predictable schlock tossed in. He
drives
the funny looking European car we have seen over and over again. He slips and falls in the
mud. A dog relieves
himself on Crowe’s foot.
Yes, it made me think doing this movie was
some sort of probationary community service gig Crowe was forced to do
after
that whole telephone incident because an actor of his caliber has to
know how
lame this stuff is.
A
Good Year is
an uninviting film that overstates its machismo at every turn as the
men stare
lustily at the pretty women and make comments that are best kept in the
locker
room rather than in a date movie.
Meanwhile, writer Marc Klein (based on the book by
Peter Mayle) and
Scott fail to bring heart and soul to a film that is supposed to be
inspirational and upbeat (think Under The Tuscan Sun).
Instead, it’s a paint-by-numbers plot,
script
and directing performance that one would expect from a neophyte, not
someone
with the track record of Crowe or Scott.
The romance is flimsy as we have to wonder what this
lady could ever,
possibly see in this Skinner brute after just a few chance encounters. An interesting subplot
about a secret
vineyard disappears without a trace, and even the ending is clumsy. Ultimately, A
Good Year is nothing more than trash with fancy European
accents. 0 Waffles
(Out Of 4) Copyright 2006 - WaffleMovies.com
|
