A Good Year

Cert: 12A
Stars: Russell Crowe, Albert Finney, Freddie Highmore, Rafe Spall, Archie Panjabi, Tom Hollander
Director: Ridley Scott
Five-second summary: An Englishman inherits a vineyard in Provence and spends a year there

Full Review

It is all too easy to imagine Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe having a cosy chat one evening over a cigar and a bottle of Chateau Lafite-Rothschild and deciding to make A Good Year. Who wouldnÂ’t want to spend a few months in Provence eating and drinking the local produce and doing a bit of filmmaking on the side?

Shot in and around ScottÂ’s own Provenç:al country pile, A Good Year originates from the same author, Peter Mayle, who penned A Year In Provence and has the same overall effect of making you want to go on holiday. Provence really is the star of the film and given the slightness of the story, itÂ’s easy just to sit there fantasising about somehow blackmailing Ridley Scott into handing over the keys to his manor.

Russell Crowe plays Max, a ruthless, heartless and arrogant trader in the City of London who inherits a house in Provence when his uncle dies. Max used to spend idyllic summers there as a child, but hadnÂ’t even been in touch with his uncle for 10 years. He flies over to check out the property, intending only to stay for a day and then flog it, but is gradually intoxicated by the place and a beautiful local waitress.

Gently paced, lightly comedic and largely inconsequential, A Good Year feels a lot like soothing Sunday night TV drama and, unsurprisingly, will probably appeal to the same people who tuned in week after week to see how John ThawÂ’s Year In Provence was going.

Not a lot really happens and MaxÂ’s character transformation, supposedly the core of the film, is a bit of a non-event. Although we are told how loathed he is for his cut-throat ways at the beginning, he is still presented as being good humoured and admired. Nothing much really changes. He is obviously minted to begin with so itÂ’s hard to get excited about him inheriting a hugely valuable property and revaluating his life. Oh, so this really rich guy who could obviously retire very, very comfortably tomorrow gets a free house in Provence and meets a gorgeous French woman, thatÂ’s nice.

Verdict: Very slight, but if you want to go on holiday but canÂ’t, itÂ’s probably the next best thing.

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