Comparisons between “Sideways” and the new film “Bottle Shock” are both unfair and inevitable.
Both are mostly set in California wine country, and each features characters unabashedly in love with wine. How many movies fall into both those categories?
But while “Sideways” yielded a darn near perfect comedy, “Bottle Shock” wears its flaws with pride. It might be ungainly, but it knows there’s plenty of humor swirling around every scene.
Based on a true story, “Bottle Shock” follows a struggling Napa Valley winery on the verge of collapse. Jim, the winery’s owner (Bill Pullman) and his post-hippie son Bo (Chris Pine, the man who will be Capt. James T. Kirk in May) are fighting each other when they aren’t battling back creditors.
Enter Sam (Rachael Taylor), the vineyard’s new intern who gets between Bo and the vineyard’s trusty co-worker Gustavo (Freddy Rodriquez).
The vineyard’s turmoil is set aside when a French-based wine expert (Alan Rickman)
visits Napa Valley to prove beyond a doubt French wines are superior to anything the USA can produce.
The snobby expert’s clashes with Jim and a very American wine seller back in France (Dennis Farina) give “Bottle Shock” its juice. Rickman can dazzle while trapped in a phone booth, but pairing him with Pullman’s earthy appeal makes for some vintage film moments.
If only the rest of “Bottle Shock” worked as effortlessly.
Sam serves as little more a beautiful trinket adorning the film. She even gets a Playboy-style sequence where she hoses down some wine equipment in a pair of Daisy Dukes.
That scene really pushes the story forward.
And her character’s love triangle between Bo and Gustavo is just awful. The script treats Gustavo like a second-class citizen after allowing him some early grace notes.
Director Randall Miller, a television vet, takes great care in framing the rolling vineyards and California sunshine. He’s just as adept at leveraging the film’s comic morsels.
“Bottle Shock” lets some metaphors clang and clatter to the ground, and it can’t figure out what to do with several key subplots. But it’s a lively tale all the same, one extoling the virtues of hard work, passion and a never-say-die spirit.
(Photo: Rachael Taylor and Freddy Rodriguez drink to their common love of wine in “Bottle Shock”)
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Sideways was set in the Central Coast, not the Napa Valley
I know movies … not wine – or geography! Thanks for the clarification, Steve. I’ve amended the post.
I’m a “Sideways” fanatic; I’ve actually considered recording a commentary for it. One of the things that people tend to miss when discussing the film is that it really isn’t about wine, but about a man whose wine fixation serves to symbolize him as a person.
The wine, to mix metaphors badly, is the icing on the cake with the great “Sideways,” James.
I finally saw the flick and enjoyed it. The love triangle was a mess, but Alan Rickman is…well, Alan Rickman!
Plus the whole thing made me sorry that I’m allergic to alcohol.
Rickman rules … the movie sags when he’s off screen for too long.