The locations and sets are enough to make you book a flight to France and rent a country chateau for the summer.
By: Bob Brown
The real star of this film, based on Peter Mayle’s novel of the same name, is Provence. Its languid charms are more seductive than wine or women, the two other competitors for the protagonist Max Skinner’s jaded attention. Following the death of a favorite uncle, Henry (Albert Finney), Max (Russell Crowe) finds himself the apparent heir to a French chateau and its vineyards in the south of France.
Max is a cutthroat broker in London’s high-powered financial markets. He presides over what looks like a boiler room, barking at his minions to buy up shares in droves, then dump them as quickly when the price peaks. (This is Crowe as a modern Master and Commander.) He’s a self- described "ahole." Crowe delivers these lines with a twinkle, knowing he’s playing the press’ version of himself.
Flashbacks show a happier time, when young Max (Freddie Highmore) spent golden summer days with Henry, learning to appreciate the vine and the hard knocks of tennis. We’re to believe he absorbed his uncle’s competitiveness on those clay courts.
Henry is a fount of bon mots, a walking vade mecum of tips and advice. Although his role is small, the gravelly Finney stands out in a film where the others are coasting on charm and good looks sort of like the scenery.
So idyllic are Max’s youthful summers, you’d think they would have ripened into his mature years. But they have not. The adult Max has lost touch with the boy. Even a visit back to the old haunts to inspect his inheritance does not seem to crack his shell. He is ready to sell the place and go back to his mercenary ways in London.
But something or rather someone happens: Fanny (French actress Marion Cotillard), a local girl whom Max unwittingly runs off the road when he is preoccupied on his cell phone (a Palm Treo, which gets as much screen time as Max, if not more). When they finally meet, Max is flat on his back in mud, where Fanny is happy to leave him. Of course, her contempt is the classic setup for a sexually charged pas de deux.
Max has never met a woman who hasn’t eventually shared his sheets. He’s even ready to bed an attractive young cousin, Christie (Australian actress Abbie Cornish), who shows up on his doorstep unknown and unannounced. This is the crux. Christie would be the heir if truth were known. Suddenly, the place, and the pace of life, look more attractive to a Londoner.
There’s a lot of pseudo wine lore in the movie. Provence is not known for wines of great depth, but we’re to accept that someone is cultivating a vineyard so extraordinary that the mere initials on its private bottlings bring gasps from those who see them. Hogwash. A wine specialist inspecting Max’s vines for quality uses a refractometer to test them an instrument that could not possibly serve the purpose, especially since the grapes aren’t ripe yet and he’s holding it incorrectly.
But these are quibbles. Directed by action film specialist Ridley Scott (who worked with Crowe so effectively in Gladiator) from a screenplay by Marc Klein, the film is a respite from the usual highly charged fare. For once, Crowe gets to play a character who does not put his fist through walls or chins. And for Crowe, that takes quite a bit of acting. Max’s romance is so fanciful and contrived, however, it makes no sense anywhere but in this lightweight film.
We can sit back and enjoy the gorgeous scenery as presented by French cinematographer Philippe Le Sourde. The locations and sets are enough to make you book a flight to France and rent a country chateau for the summer. Evidently the entire crew had a relaxing time in Provence, with its rolling vineyards and postcard-perfect gardens that have been neglected just enough to be romantically picturesque.
The film is amusing and better than one might expect from its trailers, which emphasize Max-Fanny face time. Who knew there was more going on than this? But not a whole lot more.
If you’re dog-tired from holiday shopping in the mall and need a break, you could do worse than catch this movie. It will not dangerously elevate your blood pressure or increase your heart rate, nor will it offend your taste. And that’s something to be thankful for, considering the alternatives.
Rated PG-13 for language and some sexual content.

