Director:Ridley Scott
Writer: Marc Klein, Peter Mayle
Cast: Russell Crowe, Freddie HIghmore and Albert Finney
Ever since Gladiator, director Ridley Scott has been making successful gory movies. His sequel to Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal, featured a man eating his own brains, his war movie, Black Hawk Down, was gory enough to spark controversy and Kingdom of Heaven was full of more of the kind of bloody butchery featured in Gladiator. So it comes as something of a surprise that Scott would, for the first time in his career, helm a romantic comedy. Still, from the quality of Scott’s other films and the background of the director, it is not surprising that A Good Year is a masterful transgression of genre. Entirely different from anything Scott has done before, this romantic comedy is much more than a chick flick.
This in itself is surprising, as A Good Year was scripted by Marc Klein, whose only other screenwriting credit was for the sickeningly formulaic Serendipity. It is hard to tell if A Good Year is successful because of Ridley Scott’s ability to make a good movie out of a poor script—as was the case with Gladiator—or if Klein’s writing simply improved. Whatever the case, the story is solidly built, infinitely moving, and occasionally amusing.
This is the tale of Max Skinner, a London bonds dealer and ruthless moneymaker. Max learns that his Uncle Henry, who he used to spend summers with as a child, recently died without a will, leaving his estate and vineyard in France to his closest of kin. Max visits the estate with the intention of selling it, but starts to fall in love with the countryside of his youth, and with an enigmatic French waitress. Through unconventionally fluid flashbacks, we learn about his fond memories of the estate as a child with Henry. Slowly, through a series of humorous and heart warming scenes, he begins to fall away from his social Darwinist life in London, and into a more beautiful kind of lifestyle.
Max is played by Russell Crowe who delivers, as ever, a top notch performance. At first Crowe plays Max with the kind of pure arrogance that audiences have come to associate with him off screen. Gradually though, Crowe becomes more sympathetic and even likable. This may not be Crowe’s best performance, but he immerses himself in the character completely. The rest of the cast consists of lesser-known actors, all of whom fill their roles perfectly. Ridley Scott has always had a knack for extracting powerful performances out of his actors. This film is no exception; the entire cast shines.
Of course, since this is a Ridley Scott film, it’s also visually gorgeous. London is cast in dark, metallic blues and grays. France—especially the vineyards—is filtered through verdant greens and yellows. Every shot in this movie is beautiful, and some are gorgeous.
A Good Year is one of the most simply beautiful, heart warming films made in recent memory. It is occasionally funny, often moving, and always beautiful. This is a complete turnaround from Scott and Crowe’s last collaboration, Gladiator, but it is nearly as good of a film.