A mediocre vintage

I watched A Good Year, starring Russell Crowe, Albert Finney, Marion Cotillard, and Freddie Highmore, today. Crowe plays Max Skinner, a moneygrubbing banker in fast-paced London. Max is focused only on generating profits, and he has no personal relationships in his life to speak of. After a bumper business day (involving ethically questionable behaviors), Max comes home to find a letter notifying him that his Uncle Henry (Finney), who he used to spend his summers with, has died. Because Henry left no formal written will, and because Max is his only living relative, all of Henry's possessions (which include a sizable estate and vineyard in Provence) go to Max. Max packs up his bags and heads to Provence to do a quick assessment of the estate and prepare it for sale.

Of course, once Max arrives in France, Provence (and a lovely lady, played by Cotillard) sinks into his bones. In addition, the vineyard jumpstarts Max's memory, invoking all the grand adventures he had on the estate with Uncle Henry. (Highmore plays Max as a child.) Lastly, an attractive American shows up, claiming to be Uncle Henry's illegitimate daughter (complicating decisions about the estate).

My favorite parts of the movie were the flashbacks of Max as a child at the vineyard. Highmore and Finney had a nice on-screen relationship, and the golden-tinted light had just the right hazy, halcyon quality to evoke memory.

Overall, however, the movie had a really predictable storyline and smacked of a French version of Under the Tuscan Sun. Not a must-see by any means.