i must have seen a different film!!

Highly Overrated But Still Good

As Good As It Gets

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

In 1976, in the Napa Valley, the perfectionist vigneron Jim Barrett (Bill Pullman) is the owner of the Château Montelena that is full of debts and near bankruptcy. Jim is unsuccessfully racking his wine trying to reach perfection. He has a problematic relationship with his hippie son Bo (Chris Pine) and his Mexican foreman and connoisseur Gustavo Brambila (Freddy Rodriguez) is secretly producing wine with his father Mr. Garcia (Miguel Sandoval). Jim hires the free spirit intern Sam Fulton (Rachael Taylor) from UC Davis to help him in the production of wine. Meanwhile in Paris, the wine expert Steven Spurrier (Alan Rickman) that owns a specialized store has few clients. His friend Maurice Cantavale (Dennis Farina) advises him to promote his store and he decides to organize a blind tasting competition between the French and the American wines. He travels to Napa Valley to find the best American wines to bring to the dispute. He has a troubled meeting with Jim that refuses to participate in the competition. However Bo foresees the chance of survival of his father's business and gives two bottles to Spurrier. But soon he finds that the color of all the 500 bottles of chardonnay have turned into brown. Is Jim Barrett's business doomed? "Bottle Shock" is a delightful movie based on a true story. This little but charming movie is not available on DVD in Brazil but only on cable ("O Julgamento de Paris", meaning "The Paris Judgement"), but I bought the American DVD following the advice of a friend of mine from California. The story has a pleasant screenplay with entertaining subplots that might or might not really happen, such as the triangle of love among Sam, Gustavo and Bo, that keeps the plot never boring. The cast has good names associated to the beautiful locations that make this little movie worthwhile watching. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): Not Available

To compare this movie to sideways is a JOKE. In fact, I believe that the comparison that I keep seeing to sideways is what has been getting this movie such negative press. Bottle Shock was a delightful, playful, telling of the story of Château Montelena, which won the 1976 Paris blind tasting in regards to Chardonnay. There is just enough comic relief to keep viewers happy, and the story has its ups and downs, keeping the viewer engaged as well. Not to mention, this is, by all means, a star studded feature. Just because you do not see Brad Pitt or George Clooney, does not mean this film is lacking in star power. Chris Pine (who is now captain James T. Kirk) and Bill Pullman (he's the guy who always plays our president in blockbuster films, e.g. Independence Day) do just fine on their own. Throw in Dennis Farina (Law and Order) and Alan Rickman (Snape in Harry Potter) and you have more star power that most movies can hope to gather. Long story short, the correct cast was billed for the telling of this wonderful event in American history. You do not have to be a wine enthusiast to enjoy this movie.

Director Randall Miller reunites a number of actors from his previous film, Nobel Son (2007), for this gentle and rather likable fact-based story set in the wine industry of the 1970s. Bottle Shock is basically an underdog story, capturing the moment in time when the worldwide supremacy of French wine was challenged and finally equalled by wine produced in another country. The film is a character-driven piece told through a series of vignettes – whether or not it is 100% true is debatable, but it makes for pleasant enough viewing.Sommelier Steven Spurrier (Alan Rickman) runs a declining wine shop in Paris. He is absolutely convinced that French wine is the greatest that has ever been produced, but his drinking buddy and lifelong wine connoisseur Maurice Cantavale (Dennis Farina) convinces him that the Californian grape grown in the Napa Valley is rapidly catching up. Spurrier heads out to California to taste this new wonder-wine for himself, and meets vintner Jim Barrett (Bill Pullman) who is lovingly preparing a new Chardonnay at his Château Montelena winery. Spurrier invites Jim to put forth his wine into a competition to be held in Paris – the wines entered into the contest will be blind-tested and a winner chosen from the results. Jim is suspicious that the whole thing is a scam designed to reaffirm French supremacy in the production of wine and refuses to enter. However, his son Bo (Chris Pine) sends a few bottles forward without his father's knowledge. To everyone's surprise the Californian wine wins in the blind-tasting competition… and the dominance of France as the world's no.1 wine-producing nation is suddenly blown wide apart.The basic story is interesting enough and the film is always at its best when dealing with Spurrier's passion for wine and Barrett's passion for creating the perfect bottle. If the whole film had just focused on the snobbish superiority of the French and the quiet determination of the Americans to rival them, it would probably have been better than it is. What lets it down is the excessive time and attention dedicated to some of the subplots – one being Bo and Jim's difficult relationship, another being a rather dull love triangle. Obviously, the more thoroughly characters are developed in a movie the more we can relate to them, and the more fully we become caught up in their story. But there comes a point when too much emphasis can be placed on these minor things, making them become little more than "padding", and Bottle Shock is a film too padded-out for its own good. Overall, it is almost a charming feel-good film with a perfectly arresting story to tell. It's just that one can't help feeling that if it was 20 minutes shorter it would also be 20 minutes sharper. A missed opportunity, then… but not a wasted opportunity.

There have been one or two films about wine over the years, but very few about American wine. This independent film, I guess, looks to cash in on the critical success of the very enjoyable Sideways (2004). It is based on true events, but unfortunately it doesn't quite hit the mark, for me at least. But more of that later.This film tells the story of how, in 1976, Californian wines from the Napa valley became internationally acceptable. It all came about because a rather stuck-up wine expert, based in Paris, called Steven Spurrier decided to broaden his horizons and arrange a blind tasting of French and American wines. We then learn about the lives of those making the wine. In particular vineyard owner Jim Barrett and his son Bo, and some of the people they employ, Gustavo Brambila and Sam Fulton. Mr Spurrier goes to the Napa Valley and tastes all of the wines on offer. He makes a list of the best of them and samples are shipped to France for the tasting. And this is where history is made.You would think, from my very short synopsis that the plot would concentrate on the Steven Spurrier character, but no. The vast majority of the film is taken up with the relationships between Jim, Bo, Sam and Gustavo. Although, yes, that part of the story was interesting up to a point, the important events were kind of just thrown in here and there. This made for quite a disjointed film that I found a little difficult to watch. Having said that the cinematography was spot on, some great use of the scenery and the light. Nobody particularly stood out, for me as far as performances go, though Alan Rickman was pretty good as Steven Spurrier. Honourable mentions go to Bill Pullman as Jim Barrett, Chris Pine as Bo Barrett, Rachael Taylor as Sam Fulton and Freddy Rodríguez as Gustavo Brambila.Over all I didn't warm to the characters in this film as much as I though I would and that made it kind of disappointing for me. The cinematography was good but the plot needed to be refined a lot more. It's not a great film, but not a bad one either. I won't be watching it again in a hurry, but if you're not averse to downing a bottle or two and you love the Napa Valley then I guess it's recommended. Otherwise, maybe give it a miss.My score: 6.1/10