A Good Year

A Good Year

Date watched- 19th October 2010

Genre; Drama/Comedy/Romance
Year; 2006
Running Time; 1hour 52 minutes
Director; Ridley Scott
Written By; Marc Klein (Screenplay) Peter Mayle (Novel)
Actors; Russell Crowe, Albert Finney, Freddie Highmore, Tom Hollander, Marion Cotillard, Abbie Cornish et al.

Acting 4/5
Keeping my attention 4/4
Visuals/Direction 4.5/5
Story/Plot 5/6
Total 17.5/20

Plot

Max Skinner (Crowe) is a successful stock broker in London, cue convincing English accent from Crowe. Max’s Uncle Henry (Finney) dies in France where he owns and runs a vineyard, a place Max had visited during the summers as a young boy, leaving no will. Max as his closest living relative inherits the château and vineyard. Intending to sell the property as soon as possible and return within a day to the ‘rat race’ Max goes to France to arrange things, but a dubious deal before his departure, which leads to a brief suspension, and a missed flight home give him the opportunity to slow things down and remember the summers he spent there. Will Max sell his Uncle’s beloved home or not? And where does the mysterious and expensive wine come from that everyone in the area reveres so much?

My Personal Views

Originally I bought this DVD for my mum for Mothers’ day a few years ago. But I loved it so much it managed to winkle its way up to my bedroom and has remained in my collection ever since. She did give me permission by the way; I actually don’t think she enjoyed it as much as I did. I have only watched it a few times since, but each time I do watch it I think ‘what a gem’. I know that this movie doesn’t have very good ratings on the internet but I genuinely think it deserves a second chance. Russell Crowe was an actor I only knew from Gladiator (we got to watch it in RE at school for some reason), when I watched this first I have to say I was surprised at how different he is in this role. He isn’t moody (or wearing gladiator gear, instead he’s in a suit), or trying to revenge the murders of his family. This movie is truly heart warming in places, with flashbacks of Max’s childhood summers, as present day Max stays at his Uncle’s home. You find that Uncle Henry taught Max life’s lessons “It’s inevitable that you lose sometimes”, some Max has taken on board and some he has forgotten until his time back in Provence.
Russell Crowe does a pretty convincing English accent (I still can’t quite believe he is Australian) and his performance is superbly supported by the rest of the cast, including Tom Hollander (who I originally knew from the BBC adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell’s novel Wives and Daughters) and the future (well back then) Oscar winner Marion Cotillard (2008 Best Actress- Le vie en rose). All in all a witty and heart felt story and portrayal well by all concerned. Added in to this the factor of “ oh look isn’t that Rafe Spall?” (son of Timothy Spall) and “oow it’s that nasty fella off of Ashes to Ashes” (Daniel Mays- who I’m sure is lovely in real life). Also the stunning views of rural France help to keep your gaze fixed firmly on the screen, if they weren’t already.

Outcome

This is not going to move an inch off my shelves, unless I’m about to watch it.

Additional

So the day I watched this movie this week (Tuesday 19th October) the world seemed like a pretty jolly place, despite the typical English Autumn weather. But on Wednesday it felt like the bottom of the world fell out and took my whole family with it. A few weeks ago we found out that my grandparents’ next door neighbour (she and her family have really helped them out over the years seeing as most of my family live quite a way away)had been diagnosed with breast cancer. Pretty advanced according to the doctors. So she went for a scan and on Wednesday she got the results, not only is the cancer in her breasts but it has spread pretty much to the whole of her body, through my mum’s tears, I caught ‘spine’ as being one of the areas affected and there is little that any Doctor can do for her. So we cried and hugged it out and kept saying how horrible it is to happen to such a lovely person, she’s only in her 40s. So we were managing to overcome this blow in our own English stiff upper lip way when on Friday my mum delivered more bad news, it turns out that my Grandpa might also have cancer, in his lung. But on the positive side (and according to my very senior nurse aunt) it isn’t as bad as it first sounds, it is not likely that he will need treatment and it is most likely that he will be taken from this world by something else rather than this, he is 87 after all. So ‘how does this all fit in with this movie? ‘, you might ask. Well looking at A Good Year I can only help but wonder how the world will be without these two people in it (As Max’s world is without his Uncle) and how everyone who knows them will remember them when they too are gone. I can only hope that in some way we will all remember the lessons they have taught us of happiness, compassion, kindness and the true meaning of being in a loving family. But while they are still with us all of thoughts are with them, particularly with my grandparent’s lovely neighbour. I can not even imagine what they are going through at the moment. With all my love xx