The lesser known of the two movies made about wine from the
2000’s.
Bottle Shock starring Chris Pine, Alan Rickman, Bill
Pullman, Rachael Taylor, Freddy Rodriquez, and directed by Randall Miller. The film
is based on the true story of a 1976 blind tasting competition between French
and California wines. Bottle Shock focuses its story on one California vineyard
in particular owned by Bill Pullman’s character Jim Barrett who is helped by
his son Bo played by Chris Pine. They are a struggling financially and without
producing a successful wine for the season Jim will have to sell the vineyard.
Enter the British wine enthusiast played by the late great Alan Rickman who
offers to put California wines up against the vaunted French. Rickman’s
character, Steven Spurrier doesn’t really think the California wines have a
chance, but he’s surprised by how good the wine is in California.
Bottle Shock is a simple light fun movie. There isn’t much
depth to its story, but the film does try and add more to its characters. It’s
about the romance of making wine along with the desire to do something with
your life. Jim Barrett left a law firm to buy a winery and make wine. He knows
what he is doing, but there is always a hint of him being lost in the process.
Bo is a hippy who is still lost in the sixties, and doesn’t want to grow up.
Rachael Taylor plays the girl interest for Pine and Freddy Rodriquez, and adds
love triangle element to the story. She is probably the least developed
character, but still plays the role well. I could have probably done without
this story element, but it doesn’t hurt the movie either. Rickman’s character Spurrier wants to prove
he belongs in the wine circles in France and sees the competition as a way to
become established. Most of the characters have something to prove to either
themselves or the outside world, and while it might be a tad cliché, I found
the story and characters engaging.
All of the actors in the roles do a fantastic job. Pine
might seem out of place playing the hippy, but he does it well. There is a
great scene with him going to a country club to ask for money from his mother
and is beautifully awkward. Alan Rickman stands out above everyone, because of
who he is. He plays the pompous British wine snob to perfection. There is a
hint of his inner goodness throughout the film though. He has the façade of
being a snob, but in the end you can’t help but like his character. I can watch
this movie over and over simply because Rickman is in it and how well he acts
in the role. The film is worth a watch at least once just to see him perform.
Don’t get me wrong he’s not playing Macbeth, but he just does a great job. Pine
and Rickman are the two standouts in the film for me, but Rodriquez does a good
job with his part and adds an interesting Mexican-American element to the
story. It might be a little heavy handed at times, but I still enjoyed it. The
entire story might be a little on the nose overall, but with its light fun
tone, it doesn’t worry about making big statements with its characters.
The backdrop and setting of the film is another reason why I
enjoyed it so much. Setting the film in Napa Valley is fantastic. The
characters travel around the valley quite a bit and why wouldn’t you use this
as an excuse to shoot the fantastic scenery. Along with the scenery I found the
musical score in the movie added to the tone of the film. I liked that Spurrier
had a nice little French theme to go along with him, and Bo a rock. Then with
the sweeping shots of the valley you get an appropriate musical score to
accompany them. The score just added a bit more enjoyment to the light hearted
good natured movie.
The only issue I have with the movie is that the pacing is a
little off. It probably is about ten to fifteen minutes too long, and some
scenes could have been cut to speed up time. They could have cut out the love
triangle aspect and it would have sped up the pacing. The ending has one too
many scenarios, and while parts of each story are probably true, the film could
have cut back on one and it would have streamlined the ending of the film. Even
with these problems I have watched Bottle Shock numerous times. I’ll stop and
watch if I catch it on television at any point and watch until the conclusion.
For me Bottle Shock is an
enjoyable fun film based on true life events. I think it is worth watching, and
if you have Amazon Prime you can stream it as part of their video service at
the moment. If you have seen it before let me know what you think. If not does
it sound interesting? Comment and let me know.
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