The Judgement of Bottle Shock
Written: Sep 01 '08 (Updated Sep 03 '08)
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Product Rating:
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| Bang For The Buck |
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Pros: Alan Rickman, Dennis Farina and to a lesser extent, Eliza Dushku
Cons: Uninspired and corked
The Bottom Line: too fake in feeling and in visuals
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| sslabs's Full Review: Bottle Shock |
Bottle Shock is an indie dramedy that recounts the spark that ignited interest in Napa Valley wines around the world in 1976. Now known as the Judgement of Paris, Bottle Shock takes a formulaic approach in telling the story from start to finish of how Calistoga's Chateau Montelena stabbed French wine snobs in the heart . We also have a film that takes place in Paris and Calistoga. Or I should say, what looks like a soundstage and Sonoma. In the Eiffel Tower city, California wine is a joke, more fruit punch than wine. In California, Americans plug away, making great wine, unsure of how to market it, and portrayed as being afraid to charge for a tasting.
Who will introduce California wine to the world? Will California win? What happens along the way? All things answered in Bottle Shock in a slicked over kind of way. Honestly, I didn’t expect much, you can’t cram a story like this into a 100 minute film. I walked into this movie ready to pick it apart for several reasons. The first being that I was born in Calistoga. Second, I know where the Montelena winery is, everyone in Calistoga does. A very long time ago, I even spent the better part of a day there with a wine maker in a behind the scenes kind of way. It was part of a program at the Calistoga high school where every student in our class spent the day with a different business owner. So I’m immediately looking for what wasn’t going to be real.
On top of that, I saw the movie in St Helena, nearly the center of the Napa Valley at the Cameo theater. As I looked around, I saw so many familiar faces, yet I knew no one. These are the people I see at every wine auction, wine charity and celebrity/art wine function. So Bottle Shock wasn’t going to get away with things they could with anyone from outside the Napa Valley. More on this later. In Bottle Shock, Montelena owner Jim Barrett is played by Bill Pullman. Here Pullman portrays a struggling winery owner, grumpy, set in his ways, and unsure of when the bank will seize everything he was trying to create. His son, Bo Barrett is portrayed by little known actor Chris Pine. Here, Pine plays the younger Barrett as this long-haired blonde surfer guy that lives nowhere near a beach. I recall more than one gratuitous surf board shot now that I think about it.
While I relished Pine’s wicked evil performance as a nutty skinhead in Smokin’ Aces I found myself simply tolerating him in Bottle Shock. The very talented Alan Rickman plays Steven Spurrier, the British wine merchant that ultimately introduced California wine to France. In a strange twist, Spurrier heads to California to collect wine for a French tasting that he believes California wines will lose. During the course of Bottle Shock, it’s never exactly crystal clear as to why Rickman as Spurrier pushes on in this quest. I guess I’m forgetting to mention the constant prodding by Maurice played by cop turned actor Dennis Farina. Even so, it’s one of those things where you suspend common sense for the sake of enjoyment. Farina is a fantastic character actor and he pairs nicely with Rickman. During the course of Bottle Shock, the movie dragged a bit when the two weren’t present.
What would a movie be without the obligatory hot chick? Sam is that hot chick, here as a kind of intern played by Aussie actress Rachael Taylor (Transformers) sans the interesting accent . With all the wine business at hand, there is also a subplot involving Bo Barrett and his friend Gustavo played by Freddy Rodriguez both vying for Sam’s affection. While Bo takes a stab at hooking up with Sam, it’s Freddy that succeeds by creating a wine that makes her swoon. This causes great tension and had me almost falling asleep. A better choice for Sam would have been Eliza Dushku who has a few brief scenes as Jo the bartender in bar that probably never existed in Calistoga.
When onscreen, Eliza smolders, where Rachael is simply competent. Bottle Shock doesn’t seem to get any real traction until Rickman as Spurrier finally touches down in the Napa Valley to start collecting wine for his competition. That’s where Rickman finally gets to deliver his A-game in a reserved deadpan kind of way. While Bottle Shock delivered a few good laughs, some tension, and just enough of that certain something to hold my interest, other things ruined it for me. It’s something that irks me because it makes no sense. The fine folks that made Shock did come to Calistoga, they did shoot there, but you’d hardly notice it in the movie. The screen time of where the Montelena winery actually exists seems like a few seconds.
Calistoga is not New York, shutting down a street doesn’t involve the same planning that shutting down say a major street in NY did for Will Smith’s I Am Legend. So what happened? Was it that much more expensive or time consuming to get the proper Calistoga footage? With every inaccuracy (intentional or not) I could hear the people around me whispering. The two biggest crowd reactions were to the entrance of the Chateau Montelena and the airport scene. The entrance to the winery in Shock looked like someplace in the middle of Sonoma. The airport scene that reeked of LA soundstage complete with TWA counter drew the biggest laughs. When Pine, as Bo Barrett announced that he had a winery ‘here in Napa’ as he pleaded with passengers to help him transport his wine to France, the crowd had a reaction.
I doubt it was the reaction intended by the filmmakers. Unless someone out there knows something I don’t, there has never been such an airport in Napa. Anyone take a direct flight from Napa to Paris? What in the hell was that? Just when I would settle in, something like that would yank me right back out. There is an airport in Napa, and you are more likely to see airplanes of the two seat variety than a jet liner. Another disappointment, an early scene with our three young actors in a kind of love triangle walking through downtown Calistoga.
It was shot at night with the camera movement set at minimal, imagine a horse with blinders on. As Barrett points out the key things in Calistoga like the local market, I was trying not to laugh. I have no idea where they actually were, but it was nowhere near Calistoga. In Hollywood, I understand that for financial reasons, a US city must be replaced by another city in Canada. But what baffles me is that the crew came to Calistoga and they really didn’t need to considering they way Shock was cut.
I won’t even delve into the tasting in France that looked eerily like Sonoma county. I probably also shouldn't mention the mail carrier walking deep into the vineyard to deliver a telegram. Outside of wine country, these things will go right over the heads of anyone watching and that’s fine. My other issue with Shock is the lack of chemistry between the characters Bo Barrett, Gustavo and Sam. There are some fine actors in Shock, but they never seem to gel. Shock was also too predictable and it simply felt like it was going through the paces most of the time. Jim Barrett is the cliche hick trying to save his winery. Bo is the irresponsible son, Gustavo deals with some racist truck driver, all filmmaker 101. Even if that's how things really were, they should have been told in such a way that didn't feel so ham-fisted.
Because this is based on a historical event, we all know how it ends. Well almost. Bottle Shock ends, it’s darkness and time to roll credits. Text informs the audience that Stag’s leap won the now famous 1976 tasting in the red wine category. We are also informed that a 30 year anniversary tasting resulted in another win for California. What was the most interesting bit missing from Bottle Shock? The French, the very people that turned their noses up to Napa Valley wine, purchased the Montelena winery just days before the movie premiere. That bit of news is more interesting than the movie. I consider this review the Judgement of Bottle Shock. In my version, this California movie loses.
Tony Flores 2008
I really hated Sony's LCD protector
I really liked singer Corinne Bailey Rae
I loved Amelie
Recommended:
No
Movie Mood: Feel-good Movie
Viewing Method: Sneak Preview at My Local Theater
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Epinions.com ID:
sslabs
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Member: Tony Flores
Location: Calistoga - Napa Valley Wine Country
Reviews written: 99
Trusted by: 234 members
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