If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Is there room in the world for yet another movie about wine? If the movie is Bottle Shock… then nope. Director Randol Miller has assembled an amazing and talented cast, but he uses them on a disjointed script which never seems to find its focus.

The premise, is based on a true story. Set in the late-70s, the film tells of Napa Valley’s rise to prominence in international circles when a British wine aficionado pitted California’s best against the most revered wines from the invincible vineyards of France. Alan Rickman plays the wine connoisseur, Steve Spurrier, as if he’s Peter Sellers playing Alan Rickman playing the character. It’s a weird and wildly entertaining performance, completely out of step with everything else in the movie, but since the rest of the movie isn’t very good he’s also just about the only thing worth seeing in it.

The problem is that the movie isn’t about Spurrier or any other of its many major characters. It never actually figures out who or what it’s about at all. Is it the story of a father (Bill Pullman) and son (Chris Pine) at odds? Is this a movie about a young lazy, long-haired hippy’s (Pine) love of a beautiful young, er, wine intern (Rachael Taylor)? Or is this a film about a rebellious Mexican youth (Freddie Highmore) who risks it all to make his own wine? Or is it about one of the myriad other plots and subplots woven into the film and never fully expressed or explored. Maybe it could have worked if there’d been something tie them all together, but there isn’t.

Bottle Shock Q&A
After the movie nearly the entire cast walked up front for a short question and answer session. Alan Rickman, Chris Pine, Freddie Rodriguez, Eliza Dushku, and others were in attendance. Yeah, Chris Pine. THAT Chris Pine. He’d just flown in straight from the Star Trek set, where he’s been busy playing Captain freaking Kirk. In fact he was so busy, that he wasn’t able to find a shirt that fit him. Or at least I’m guessing that’s why he had on a t-shirt which didn’t stretch all the way down to his belt buckle. That’s right, Chris Pine wears belly shirts and I was two feet from his belly button. I’m proud to be able to tell you, it was entirely lint-free.

As for the Q&A, here’s how you know you’re around a festival crowd. An entire question and answer session went by without anyone asking Pine what the new Enterprise looks like or hitting Rickman with “hey what’s up with Snape?” In fact, the only question not posed to the director was directed at Rickman, who when asked “Did you guys really drink win on the set?” responded in his trademark monotone with: “Grapejuice”. Oh and though Bottle Shock is a true story a lot of the stuff in the movie is made up, for instance a series of overly contrived sequences where father and son work out their wine-arguments by having a good box. That’s good news really, I’d hate to think these people’s actual lives were as blah as Bottle Shock.

Source: Cinemablend