A Good Year

Max, a sleazy, crooked bond trader (Russell Crowe) gets a tremendously harsh lesson about his evil ways by inheriting his uncle’s beautiful vineyard in France, where he must go to find out about the simpler things in life. Yeah, the simpler things, like taking ownership of a beautiful chateau, drinking wine and courting the local women. Why in hell did director Ridley Scott waste his time on such a terrible project? This is one hellacious, pretentious, worthless movie with a lousy Crowe at its center, sporting an annoying English accent. We know he’s British because he says “bugger” and “bollocks” a lot. The dreary present-day stuff is overshadowed by flashbacks featuring the great Albert Finney as Max’s uncle and Freddie Highmore as young Max. The flashbacks, where an uncle tries to impart some wisdom on his young nephew, are far more interesting than anything Crowe’s portion of the film offers up. Scott needs to quit screwing around and make Alien 5. He sucks at romantic comedy.