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Let’s say you’re a barfly. You’ve been drinking nonstop for ten years. Tonight, once again, you’re totally blotto. Even given your damaged judgment, bleariness and idiocy, would you accept a bar bet with a complete stranger that he can blind-identify three wines in a row? No. Probably a scam, right? And if you were a bartender in a small-town saloon, would you scam your regular customers? No. Career suicide. You, dear reader, are a smarter barfly and savvier bartender than the ones depicted in Bottleshock.
Bottleshock, which opens August 6th, is the first of two movies, I understand, about the 1976 Paris tasting, when California wines unexpectedly bested French wines in a blind tasting by leading critics, launching the Golden State’s wines onto the world stage. This one stars Alan Rickman as Steven Spurrier, the writer and merchant who set up the tasting. Chris Pyne (who is starring at Captain Kirk in the upcoming Star Trek prequel) is Bo Barrett, Bill Pullman is Jim Barrett. It’s got some gorgeous photography (barrel rooms, wine shops, vineyards – who can resist?), a gorgeous cast (Eliza Dushku – resistance is futile) and some of the details feel right. But the moviemakers have poured a Tinseltown glaze of contrivance and cuteness over the production, and it sinks.
As a movie fan, I was put off by the faux hostility between father and son and the predictable arc of the n’er-do-well assuming responsibility; I was irritated by the uberglib, saccharine yapping between the young winemakers. As a wine lover, I was dumbfounded by the third act suspense sequence involving turned Chardonnay bottles, as well as the overall depiction of the Barretts. I described some of this to a prominent California winemaker who was around at the time of the depicted events and he started growling like an enraged tiger.
Even the excellent Alan Rickman is defeated by some of the dialogue he’s given. When a character laments the blow that French wine has taken in the world’s eyes from the tasting, and moans that c’est fini, it is the end, Rickman’s Spurrier replies, and I paraphrase: “This isn’t the end. It’s the beginning. Australia [will enter the wine world.] Chile. South Africa…” Hollywood.
Have you been offended by the lack of authenticity in recent wine or culinary movies? What are some underrated food-movie gems?
Filed under: Arts & Entertainment, Winemaking
7 Comments
August 2nd, 2008 at 10:45:11 AM
Sounds horrible Tim, but I still want to see the movie. I recently re-watched Sideways on an Air France flight and it was wonderful to see how the movie made Wine one of its leading protagonists. If Bottleshock achieves that even to a minimal degree, it might be worth its viewing time (I hope).
August 3rd, 2008 at 12:46:24 PM
I’ve only seen the previews of this movie, and it looks phony as a three-dollar bill. Still, as a wine lover I’ll probably see it, albeit on pay-per-view and not in the cinema. Why waste $12 on a bad flick? That’s why I didn’t see “No Reservations” with Katherine Zeta-Jones and Aaron Eckhart. Stuuuuupid!
Best food movies: “Eat, Drink, Man, Woman” and “Big Night.”
August 4th, 2008 at 10:05:05 AM
Truly one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen (I wasn’t a big fan of Sideways, either, mostly because I found the male characters so incredibly unsympathetic). I am totally baffled by the positive reviews it’s getting (though I suppose we can discount anything Rex Reed has to say).
August 4th, 2008 at 10:27:13 AM
Two comments: My wife and I recently discovered that “No Reservations” is a remake of a vastly superior European film called “Mostly Martha.” And over the weekend I caught up with “Dinner Rush,” starring Danny Aiello, a mob/restaurant movie hybrid. It takes place in somewhat-real time; kitchen prep scenes and sequences with genuinely annoying customers make it worthwhile. It’s one of those in which gunfire solves all problems, so it loses points for simplicity, but not a bad rental.
August 7th, 2008 at 10:42:50 AM
Tim food movies just really don’t have enough plot to make them move along. That is why there was turmoil and suspense with — OMG! — “turned Chardonnay.” I’m trying hard to think of an overall GOOD food movie I have seen. I would have to go by the Pixar movie Ratatouille, which does an excellent job of poking fun at the French as well as Wine and Food snobbery, both which I am a fan of.
April 28th, 2009 at 10:53:19 AM
Tim, I have to admit that all of your criticims of the movie are right on, and in the interests of full disclosure I have to admit that I let all of those cinematic offenses slide by. It was a fun movie for someone who would drink Schlitz if it were available. Yeah, the father-son thing was way overdone, as was the Mexican family thing, as was the Dennis Farina character, which was completely improbable.
On a transatlantic flight, after a long week of conferences, it was delightful. And the cowboys bested the arrogant frogs. Simplistic formula, but it worked.
July 20th, 2012 at 6:41:29 PM
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