A Good Year: Not All that Great

"A Good Year" is a new romantic comedy that tells the story of Max Skinner (Russell Crowe), a successful stock trader in London who is a most unpleasant man. He openly refers to his staff as "lab rats" and doesn't hide his feelings when he finds a woman in his office attractive. As the picture opens Max makes a killing on the market in a less then reputable way and celebrates with his staff over champagne. That night Max gets a letter informing him that his Uncle Henry has died and left him the vineyard in France where Max spent his summers as a child. Max must go to France to attend to the matter of selling the vineyard off but finds that it isn't going to be as easy as he thinks.

Max's hopes of quickly selling the vineyard and returning to his fast paced life in London are immediately thrown into jeopardy just after arriving in France. He meets up with the vineyard's caretaker and wife, who runs the now unoccupied house. Both have dedicated their lives to the property and aren't too keen on Max throwing away their livelihoods. Soon after a young woman from California arrives claiming to be the illegitimate daughter of Uncle Henry which could make her the rightful heir to the property, when all she wanted was to meet her father.

Of course there is a romantic interest. Soon after Max arrives he is driving down a road (in an all too obvious car that is too small and too ugly for Crowe) and when he is conveniently distracted he almost runs her off the road. The woman's name is Fanny and she soon finds Max (how hard would it be to locate a lime green car that is smaller then a Yugo?) and exacts some revenge by filling up the swimming pool that Max has fallen into. Not long after Max is wooing her and a romance blossoms even though Max has been warned that this beautiful woman had been badly heart before by a man and had sworn off men. Isn't it amazing how the most beautiful French woman in town is unattached having vowed off men?

While staying at the vineyard Max has flashbacks to his childhood days where we meet Uncle Henry (nicely played by Albert Finney), who tries to teach Max the values of life and being a good person while recognizing that Max is already a spoiled brat and that he hasn't changed a bit in adulthood. Freddie Highmore ("Finding Neverland," "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory") finds the right notes as the young, spoiled kid.

"A Good Year" re-teams Russell Crowe with his "Gladiator" director Ridley Scott and it seems an odd choice for both men. Crowe is best known for his intense dramatic roles in such films as "L.A. Confidential," "A Beautiful Mind," "Master and Commander," and "Cinderella Man" but here he seems out of place trying to play a light comic romantic role. Crowe seems more at home in the early scenes when he is treating his staff ruthlessly then when he gets to France and bungles along trying to understand in car voice directions in French or falling from a diving board into an empty swimming pool. Crowe's Max is not likeable at all and his sudden change to Cary Grant-like suaveness is totally unbelievable.

Ridley Scott has made a career of directing tough, uncompromisingly dark films such as "Alien," "Blade Runner," "Black Rain," "Thelma and Louise" and "Hannibal." In 2003 he made "Matchstick Men" with Nicolas Cage, which was a dark story of con men lightened up some. The film was very successful and after the failure of last year's "Kingdom of Heaven," it appears Scott decided to make something with more appeal to a wider audience. While he may have done that he forgot to inject any life into the film.

The screenplay is totally by the book. Everything that happens from beginning to end is just what you would expect. There are no major twists and turns, no major conflict to throw the story on its side and take us into unexpected directions. Imagine "Thelma and Louise" just being a straightforward road movie where two women leave for a weekend to re-evaluate their lives and then come home with some serious changes in their decisions on where their lives are going. In that film they go to a bar and get hassled by a pig of a man who ends up dead and the women end up on the run. There is no such story device here to throw us off of expectations.

"A Good Year" is not a terrible movie. I suppose you could start smiling from the first scene and never stop. Sure there is nothing wrong with a movie doing that but when you go to see a movie starring Russell Crowe and directed by Ridley Scott you expect more then just a light movie. Perhaps Crowe and Scott saw it as a chance to vacation in France and still make a movie. That's nice for them but audiences expect at least a little challenge from these fine film creators.