Stars:
***
Rating: PG-13 for
language and drug use
Run
Time: 1
hour, 46 minutes
Veteran thesp
Bill Pullman adds critical credibility to this dippity-do ode to the California
grape.
Strip off
the chestnuts and an insipid love triangle and you’ve got yourself a feel-good
drama about people who love what they do -- in this case dabbling in the art of
great wine.
Novice
vintner Jim Barrett (Pullman) is running Chateau Montelena on a wing and a
prayer, having shed his previous life as a lawyer to follow his true passion.
Son Bo (Chris Pine in a bad blonde wig) doesn’t take to Dad’s establishment
ways and has no direction of his own. This being 1976 Bo is more interested in
chilling with the hippie crowd and lusting after curvy new hire Sam (Rachael
Taylor)
On the
other side of the Atlantic transplanted Englishman cum oenophile Steven
Spurrier (Alan Rickman) is also struggling; running a failing little wine shop
going steadily south.
For no
apparent reason Spurrier hits on the idea of an international wine competition
and travels to Napa to see what the upstart Californians are blending. Which
sets wine snob tongues a-wagging and pits France against the Golden State in an
anxious blind-tasting with historical implications.
Bo and his
Dad continue to wage war but strive to close the chasm. Jim’s gifted cellar rat
Gustavo Brambila (super cool Freddy Rodriguez) gets into the act, relishing the
sanctity of the vine while trying to keep peace on the home front.
“Bottle
Shock” has its heart in the right place; pulling its focus back to the wonders of
viniculture when the narrative threatens to wither on the vine. A sweet and
easy supplement to summer.