A Good Year

After the roaring success of 'Gladiator' in the year 2000, actor Russell Crowe and Director Ridley Scott have reunited their talents again on a movie that is entirely different in content. It is a slow moving, romantic comedy about life in France with good food, good friends, good wine and good love. The film is thus named appropriately 'A Good Year'.

'A Good Year' is based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Peter Mayle. Mayle and Ridley Scott are longtime friends and together they came up with the idea for the novel. Scott produces from a screenplay by Marc Klein.

The story revolves around Max Skinner (Russell Crowe), an investor in the London stock market and is a killer in the deals. The nastier he can be, the better. He lives for the work and his work is his life.

One day he is notified of his uncle's death and that he is the heir to his estate in France. Slightly annoyed he flies to France to take care of this business. At the villa memories of his uncle (Albert Finney) flood his mind. He remembers that as a boy (Freddie Highmore) he spent some of his happiest times there. But, a complication arises with the sudden arrival of a determined, twenty something California girl, Christie Roberts, a Napa Valley native, who claims to be the illegitimate daughter of the deceased uncle. The revelation, if true, makes her Max's cousin and, according to French law, the beneficiary of the villa. The story goes on in slow pace taking some twists and turns. Max's memories and the passage of time bring forth emotions and feelings he thought were long lost, and afford him a new appreciation of his late Uncle Henry's philosophy on life - and on life in Provence: "There's nowhere else in the world where one can keep busy doing so little, yet enjoy it so much!"

It was an enjoyable journey with Russell Crowe and his endearing performance and charming presence on the screen. Nothing in this movie is rushed. If you wish to just relax and enjoy the story, the scenery, the music on the way, 'A Good Year' would be just the right kind of movie for you.

Here is the official site: agoodyear.com. The film is rated PG-13 for language and some sexual content