| TALES OF TERROIR : Ridley Scott's 'A Good Year' [4/10] |
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| Monday, 23 October 2006 | |
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By now pretty widely acknowledged as one of his generation's leading actors, Russell Crowe can do many things on screen - but humour has never been ranked high among his gifts. It's surprising, then, to see Crowe cast as the lead in A Good Year - a supposedly 'light' romantic comedy based on a novel by Peter (A Year in Provence) Mayle. The central character is Max Skinner, an uptight, ultra-successful City trader in his late thirties who inherits a rambling French mansion and vineyard following the death of his Uncle Henry (Albert Finney). Arriving on site to arrange the property's sale, Max quickly loosens up under the region's intoxicating spell... Try as he might, Crowe can't quite mask his bluff ocker charm - or antipodean accent - as a character supposedly seen by the Provencal natives as the stereotypical 'rosbif.' He's particularly awkward during moments of pratfalling physical comedy - the kind of stuff Hughs Grant or Laurie could manage in their sleep. Crowe's unsuitability is exacerbated by the fact that director Scott (dashing off a minor doodle in between his usual large canvasses) proves equally ill-suited to the fluffy material's delicate requirements. Scott's best recent picture was a semi-comedy - 2003's criminally underrated Matchstick Men - but that project had the enormous advantage of a pitch-perfect leading man in Nicolas Cage, plus a brilliantly intricate trap of a script. No such luck here, screenwriter Marc Klein (previously responsible for 2001's smart Serendipity) stringing together a series of repetitive, whimsical episodes which contain only the wispiest of plots: Max's halting romance with fiery local Fanny (Marion Cotillard); the arrival of an American teenager (Abbie Cornish) who may or may not be Uncle Henry's long-lost daughter; Max uncovering the vineyard's not-so-dark "secret"... But it's all distinctly half-hearted: smugly solipisistic and homiletic; decadently escapist in its travel-brochure prettiness; and palatable only for those who found Sideways too esoteric, confrontational and tart. The picture's anti-materialist life-lessons, meanwhile, are a bit indigestible coming from the likes of Scott, Mayle and Crowe - the latter now routinely requesting $15-20m per picture for his services. Neil Young 16th October, 2006 (originally written for Tribune magazine; online review embargoed until 23 Oct) A GOOD YEAR : [4/10] : USA 2006 : Ridley SCOTT : 117 mins (BBFC timing) seen at Empire cinema, Bromsgrove (UK), 6th October 2006 - press show (CinemaDays event) |
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