A Good Year

A Good Year (Russell Crowe, Albert Finney, Marion Cotillard, Freddie Highmore) – True to the genre of European light comedy, British Director Ridley Scott (Gladiator, Thelma and Louise, Blade Runner, Black Hawk Down) fashions a multi-layered story of the re-birth of a man for whom money is king (played by Russell Crowe, who won an Academy Award working with Scott in Gladiator). Informed of his beloved uncle’s death, securities trader Max Skinner realizes that all of his boyhood’s best memories “are within 100 steps of this place,” meaning his uncle’s villa and vineyard in France.  And as he is transformed from insensitive capitalist to transformed humanist, he falls in love with both the place and with the beautiful Fannie Chenal, played by French actress Marion Cotillard.  The beatific scenes of his time with Uncle Henry, played by five-time Oscar nominee, Albert Finney (Erin Brockovich, The Dresser, Under the Volcano, Murder on the Orient Express, Tom Jones) are interspersed beautifully with the contrasts of the now rundown estate of today as the memories come flying back to the callous Max.  As the surprising uncle’s recent life is revealed, the script becomes predictable, which detracts from the movie experience, but doesn’t ruin it.  The film has been lost in the fall’s amazingly fine line-up of Oscar contenders, but it is well worth the price of admission.