Everybody loves a success story, particularly one with an underdog. Hard as it is to believe, the underdog here is the U.S. of A. Rewind to Woodstock (if you are old enough to remember), the Hippies era, and then 7 years after it. The vintage year is 1976 and this is a true story, best for people who appreciate a glass of good wine (but hopefully are not wine snobs), but should also be enjoyable to anyone who appreciates good and fine things in life. This is the story about the end of France's domination, and the beginning of opening up the world's wine market to the "new world" (the American and Australian continents, with even a futuristic nod towards Asia).
The movie opens with panoramic aerial shots of the Napa Valley landscape, with relaxing music that moves between languid and bouncy. Right away, the tone is set. Consciously or otherwise, the audience sits back in the (presumably) comfortable seat and looks forward to a light and hopefully charming movie. Unless it is a particularly hard-to-please audience, "Bottle shock" generally delivers.
This is a true story (albeit not particularly well known) and therefore offers no suspense. Although a "wine layman" may not know exactly how it happened, he knows for a fact that today, when you walk into any wine store, you can get Californian wine (and for that matter, Chilean, Australian and many others) just as easy as you get French wine. The climatic finale of the huge surprise of the Barrett family wine winning a "blind tasting" contest in France will not be a surprise to the audience. What delights them is the process, and the characters involved.
The premises and relationships are all too familiar. There is the divorced father with a post-Hippie era son who is generally labeled as a loser. His way of educating the son is getting into a home-grown boxing rink with him, donning gloves and slugging it out. There is a girl who seeks internship in wine-making this family (bringing romance along the way). There is the ethnic Mexican assistant who knows even more about wine that the father-and-son who is struggling against financial odds to try to make their wine something the Napa Valley can be proud of. And everybody has a burning passion for wine, "sunshine captured in water" as one quotes from a famous saying. With just the right touch, the audience is made to like, but not quite fall madly in love, with these characters. Consistent with the general tone set for this movie, Bill Pullman, Chris Pine, Rachael Taylor and Freddy Rodriguez make it work.
But it is inimitable Alan Rickman that will make you remember this movie. He plays the English wine store owner in Paris who set out to California to explore business opportunities for American wine. Initially skeptical and snobbish, he gradually develops into the endearing hero who re-writes the history of wine for the modern world and, in the process, rescues the Barrett family from the jaws of failure. Rickman's performance is as close as you can ever get to superb vintage wine.
The movie opens with panoramic aerial shots of the Napa Valley landscape, with relaxing music that moves between languid and bouncy. Right away, the tone is set. Consciously or otherwise, the audience sits back in the (presumably) comfortable seat and looks forward to a light and hopefully charming movie. Unless it is a particularly hard-to-please audience, "Bottle shock" generally delivers.
This is a true story (albeit not particularly well known) and therefore offers no suspense. Although a "wine layman" may not know exactly how it happened, he knows for a fact that today, when you walk into any wine store, you can get Californian wine (and for that matter, Chilean, Australian and many others) just as easy as you get French wine. The climatic finale of the huge surprise of the Barrett family wine winning a "blind tasting" contest in France will not be a surprise to the audience. What delights them is the process, and the characters involved.
The premises and relationships are all too familiar. There is the divorced father with a post-Hippie era son who is generally labeled as a loser. His way of educating the son is getting into a home-grown boxing rink with him, donning gloves and slugging it out. There is a girl who seeks internship in wine-making this family (bringing romance along the way). There is the ethnic Mexican assistant who knows even more about wine that the father-and-son who is struggling against financial odds to try to make their wine something the Napa Valley can be proud of. And everybody has a burning passion for wine, "sunshine captured in water" as one quotes from a famous saying. With just the right touch, the audience is made to like, but not quite fall madly in love, with these characters. Consistent with the general tone set for this movie, Bill Pullman, Chris Pine, Rachael Taylor and Freddy Rodriguez make it work.
But it is inimitable Alan Rickman that will make you remember this movie. He plays the English wine store owner in Paris who set out to California to explore business opportunities for American wine. Initially skeptical and snobbish, he gradually develops into the endearing hero who re-writes the history of wine for the modern world and, in the process, rescues the Barrett family from the jaws of failure. Rickman's performance is as close as you can ever get to superb vintage wine.