A Good Year (2006)
Directed by Ridley Scott
Failed London banker Max Skinner inherits his uncle's vineyard in Provence, where he spent many childhood holidays. Upon his arrival, he meets a woman from California who tells Max she is his long-lost cousin and that the property is hers.
12 connections found
View:
12 films that influenced A Good Year
What critics say influenced A Good Year
Based on a novel by Frances Mayes and written/directed by Audrey Wells, Under the Tuscan Sun sets itself apart from thematic cousins (including Ridley Scott's A Good Year) by eschewing the cliches of this mini-genre and instead unfolds in a much more natural (and believable) way.
We’ve been here before (and better) with the charming stranger-in-a-strange-land tale, “Under the Tuscan Sun,” starring the equally charming Diane Lane.
We've seen this movie before in various incarnations -- most notably, as Under the Tuscan Sun , with Diane Lane in the Russell Crowe part, discovering herself in the Italian countryside.
The result is a mix of Sideways' man-meets-wine infatuation and the Diane Lane endeavor, Under the Tuscan Sun.
It's not much more than Under the Tuscan Sun (2003), but set in France and with Russell Crowe standing in for Diane Lane.
I kept remembering Under the Tuscan Sun, in which divorcee Diane Lane ran off to an Italian villa, fell in love with an exotic local, and ultimately decided to abandon her previous way of life.
Certain locales in southern Europe are famous for turning hard-bitten pragmatists into romantic fools--the magic struck Colin Firth in "Love, Actually," Diane Lane in "Under the Tuscan Sun," Audrey Hepburn in "Roman Holiday" and Mayle himself in "A Year in Provence."
Like Sherman McCoy in Tom Wolfe’s “The Bonfire of the Vanities,” the trader clearly fancies himself a Master of the Universe.
Young Australian actress Abbie Cornish exhibits the same screen presence she showed in her first starring perf in 2004’s “Somersault.”
A young American woman named Christie (Australian actress Abbie Cornish, from "Somersault") turns up claiming to be Henry's illegitimate daughter, and Max has to decide whether to welcome this potential cousin, scare her off, or seduce her.
And to further spice things up, there are complications in the form of a possible challenger to Henry's will, a young American free spirit named Christie (Abbie Cornish, an Australian actress who gave a terrific performance in Kate Shortland's 2004 "Somersault," released here earlier this year).
Cornish ( Somersault ) beams as well, as the girl from Napa Valley, Calif., who knows a few things about winemaking.
Advertisement
For some reason, Max is nothing like other stock-trading Masters of the Universe, for example the slick, reptilian Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) in Oliver Stone's Wall Street.
It starts to resemble a Benny Hill sketch or something out of National Lampoon’s Vacation.
He's heaped hairy-chested tales of woe and war on us from Alien to Crowe's own Gladiator.
This isn't to say Scott is lying down on the job â no more than Mayle could be accused of cush'n it through the vineyards and châteaux of Southern France, anyway (no fool he) â but simply that it is difficult to reconcile this film with the director who made the bleak confections The Duelists, Alien, and Blade Runner.
The film’s director is Crowe’s old “Gladiator” pal Ridley Scott, whose output ( “Alien,” “Thelma & Louise,” “Hannibal” ) is generally of a more action-oriented nature.
Certain locales in southern Europe are famous for turning hard-bitten pragmatists into romantic fools--the magic struck Colin Firth in "Love, Actually," Diane Lane in "Under the Tuscan Sun," Audrey Hepburn in "Roman Holiday" and Mayle himself in "A Year in Provence."
Advertisement
A Good Year is the greatest miscalculation in a career that includes Hannibal, but Scott's motivation for adapting this insipid holiday porn may be explained by (a) his desire to rest between the heavy lifting of Kingdom of Heaven and the forthcoming American Gangster; (b) the proximity it would afford to his 11-hectare estate in Provence; and (c) it was his stupid idea in the first place.
The film’s director is Crowe’s old “Gladiator” pal Ridley Scott, whose output ( “Alien,” “Thelma & Louise,” “Hannibal” ) is generally of a more action-oriented nature.
Moments like those bring back memories of silly '80s comedies like "Funny Farm" or "The Money Pit," but it's that sort of oddball combination of influences that makes it clearly a Ridley Scott film, much like "Matchstick Men."