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Dir: Ridley Scott.
Cast: Russell Crowe, Marion Cotillard, Abbie Cornish, Albert Finney
Description: Scott and co have a jolly nice summer filming his old mate Peter Mayle's eulogy to Provence, but Russell Crowe struggles with a comic role. He's a city trader who inherits a nice chateau, and realises there's more to life than shouting "sell!" down a phone.
Country: US. 2006. 117mins
Russell Crowe as a City banker whose acquisitive instincts are mellowed when he experiences life in a country idyll
You would not expect an adaptation of Peter Mayle's novel about going to live in Provence to be directed by Ridley Scott and have Russell Crowe in the leading role.
But apparently Scott and Mayle came up with the idea for the book together and are firm friends. And Scott certainly owes Crowe a nice bit of location work in France after the rigours of Gladiator.
The result is absolutely what you would imagine in tone, however. Here is a Provence painted in loving hues, where all the women have "delicious bottoms" and anyone who prefers the London rat-race to swilling wine and looking at them must be stark, raving bonkers.
Crowe, of course, is just that, as he orchestrates his City stockbroking and banking firm to make a million a day, is rude to almost everybody and travels to Provence to get rid of his Uncle Henry's chateau and vineyard as quickly and expensively as possible.
When he gets there, he vaguely remembers (as does the film) his childhood visits to Uncle Henry (Albert Finney), who dispensed wit and wisdom as he quaffed the revolting local wine.
But he has enough pratfalls in the country to suggest he will soon be back ordering everybody about in the City. One way and another, though, he begins to like the life and especially to fancy Marion Cotillard's pretty café owner.
Then there is the arrival of a long-lost cousin (Abbie Cornish) with perfect Californian teeth, who has designs on the property herself. All this is given two hours of screen time, and is weakened by some obvious slobbering over the bucolic surroundings. It's like turning the pages of a French Country Life: you know it's not real, but the dream is appealing.
A different problem for the film is Crowe, who, while making some effort to seem likeable, doesn't really do charm. You feel he should be locked up in the pigsty and told not to come out until he's learned to behave.
Everyone else is suitably ooh-la-la (as few of the French actually are) and since it is never winter you don't ever see how damnably uncomfortable musty old chateaux can be in cold, damp weather.
Scott orchestrates this pretty pipedream with occasional witty references, such as Crowe's recital of that very English line from Lawrence of Arabia, "I like deserts. They're so very clean", as he floats in the dirty swimming pool into which he has fallen.
Otherwise, the director seems content to leave us feeling that it would be fun to leave the real world behind and bask in wine, food and women in Provence until either the financial chickens come home to roost or the pallbearers beckon.
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A jolly film. Not a blockbuster but a good couple of hours entertainment. Worth seeing.
- John Barnes, Bradford on Avon UK
I really have no problem with escapist romantic comedies set in nice locations, especially after a grinding day in the office in dreary November. I also really really like Ridley Scott and rate Russell Crowe as an actor and as a former investment banker have no problem with people making money. On top of that, I happened to spend a week this summer in the Provence village where the film was located. Right, fine, bought my ticket.
The result... ahhhhhhhhh! This film was beyond mediocre, it really was shameful given all the talent and expericence thrown at it. The central problem was this, it was simply not funny. Neither Scott nor Crowe can obviously do comedy. I think even teenagers in a multiplex in Oklahoma would find the charactures of English City traders and French country types too lampoonish to find remotely credible. On top of that, there was such an obvious placement of a Smart car that appeared every ten minutes that the whole film took on the appearance of a car ad. Somehow I managed to sit through to the predictable end, I think probably only because I was too tired to get out of my seat at the time.
- Martin French, London UK
I was given free tickets to see this film, but I still regret the time spent watching it. I love films even bad ones, but this one is beyond comments. It's tacky, cheap, so schmaltzy that it feels like a sickly overdose of sticky sweets.
Good, Crowe? I would say smug, rather. The other characters are pure French caricatures, or totally incredible ones thrown into to 'the story' to make the film last at all.
It seems like a completely lazy, shameless exercise by the crew and director to get a free holiday in Provence.
Save your few pounds for your next holiday there, but don't under any circumstances waste them on that 'movie'. (even the word seems big for what it is!)
- Josephine Thalbach, London
Russell Crowe was quite good in this, but I don't think he should choose to do comedy forever. It's a likeable, watchable film but its not the type of film that you think about when you leave the cinema. It's a shame, because the partnership between Crowe and Scott is normally good.
- Laurence, Islington London
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