Synopsis

Confident and cocky, headstrong and handsome, Max Skinner is a successful London banker who specializes in trading bonds. A financial barracuda on the banks of the Thames, Max devours the competition in his efforts to conquer the European market. His latest conquest has netted a tidy seven-figure profit, much to the chagrin of his Saville Row-draped rivals. Max’s triumph is in perfect keeping with his philosophy: winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing! Until he receives new from France that his beloved Uncle has died and left him all his property, which includes a Provençal chateau and vineyard, La Siroque, where Henry cultivated grapes for over thirty years. Max travels to the chateau where he spent his boyhood summers vacationing with his eccentric uncle, whom he hasn’t seen or written to in years. Initially he plans to sell the estate, but memories of his wonderful childhood haunt him.

What The Critics Say

"Where A Good Year is headed is obvious before the opening frame, but working from a warm script, Ridley Scott directs mostly genuine performances to keep us interested." Mike Sage PETERBOROUGH THIS WEEK "A Good Year is the kind of polished Hollywood product that intelligent, informed, hip consumers of contemporary culture are supposed to sneer at. It's also shamelessly entertaining, and having been shot in the south of France, fabulous to look at." Stephanie Zacharek SALON.COM "A guy version of a chick flick, and like regular chick flicks, it's pretty sappy stuff, though with the lovely locations and sumptuous cinematography, it's very pretty." Frank Swietek ONE GUY'S OPINION "When a slimy stock trader named Max Skinner (Russell Crowe, sporting man-boobs) inherits the chateau and winery once owned by his beloved Uncle Henry (Albert Finney), the effort on the greedy prick’s part to sell the place where his grandest memories took place motivate him — surprise, surprise — to have "a good year" … though it takes place over only a few weeks." Cole Haddon ORLANDO WEEKLY FILM REVIEW "Scott's penchant for opulent surroundings and steamy ambience can't help but seep into the dense summer settings and rich photography of French D.P. Philippe Le Sourd, and the film has a glossy travelogue look that replays well in memory." Luke Buckmaster INFILM

"His hair smoothed and straightened into something like a 1920s look, and outfitted with glasses much of the time, Crowe executes a lightweight change of pace with his charisma entirely intact, even if he still hasn't mastered an English accent that fits comfortably with Finney's or Highmore's. There are moments when the enchanting Cotillard resembles a Gallic, dark-haired Reese Witherspoon, and Aussie thesp Cornish, in her first Hollywood film, continues her quick ascent with a perfect Yank accent and a nice note of observant reserve." Todd McCarthy VARIETY "The love affair that both Mayle and Scott have with the South of France shines through this film. The look of the film is just gorgeous. You leave it with a smile on your face thinking maybe a year in Provence isn’t such a bad idea." David Stratton ABC AT THE MOVIES "Crowe has more than enough charisma to carry the film. Cotillard adds a spark of true grit to the role of love interest and Cornish's free-spirited Californian backpacker will do her blossoming international career no harm at all. Tom Hollander is as reliable as ever as Skinner's best friend, a similarly amoral lawyer. For two hours, A Good Year allows the audience to fantasise about making a similar, cashed-up kind of seachange." Vicky Roach DAILY TELEGRAPH "Russell Crowe has reunited with his Gladiator director Ridley Scott to tell a gentler story than their best picture Academy Award winner from 2000, this one an adult date flick that casts the tough-guy actor as a romantic lead. This time, Crowe plays Max, a man in search of his humanity, weighing the pros and cons of returning to his profit at all costs life in London's business circles or slowing down, sipping some wine and settling for love in one of the world's most romantic areas." THE AGE

The Inside Story Acclaimed producer and director Sir Ridley Scott O.B.E is no stranger to the Luberon area of Provence an neither is his very good friend and equally acclaimed writer Peter Mayle. Mayle is a native Brit who abandoned a successful advertising career and reinvented himself as a best-selling author and novelist. He has been writing about the good life in the South of France for over fifteen years and lives full-time in the Luberon area of Provence. Sir Ridley has maintained a vacation home and vineyard there for fifteen years. Both men have been good friends since the seventies. "Ridley used to work in the commercials business and I used to work in the advertising agency business in London," author Mayle recounts. "He was about the best there was, so we would always use his company for shooting commercials if we could afford him. We worked together intermittently in London, and then he went off and did movies and I went off and (wrote) books." It was over a bottle of Provençal wine that Mayle and Ridley collaborated on a film based on Mayles breezy 2004 novel "A Good Year". Mayle remembers, "Ridley arrived with a newspaper clipping which reported on new wines in Bordeaux – 'garage' wines – which commanded huge prices without a chateau or pedigree. Yet, people paid a fortune for them." "I saw this piece in the newspaper business section of the Times about a vineyard in France that was selling garage wine for over £30,000 a case," Scott recounts about the 1996 clipping, which he still keeps in his files in London. "I was looking for an excuse to come back to France to shoot a film, and this story idea offered the perfect opportunity. “I bounced this idea off Peter Mayle and he said, 'That would make a good novel'," Scott remembers. "And I said,'You write the book, then I’ll get the film rights.' So, he wrote the book, which was successful." Sir Ridley went off to film "Kingdom of Heaven" and Mayle set out researching his book. After nine months labouring on a laptop his manuscript was finished. A month after submitting it to Sir Ridley a deal was struck. "A winemaker has a difficult life. But if he gets it right, he’s had a good year," says the filmmaker. "That’s what a French winemaker will say: It’s been a good year." Sir Ridley had provided the name for Mayles book and the film. Marc Klein, screenwritter for "Serendipity" was chosen to adapt Mayle’s novel for the screen. Trouble was he had no knowlege of French wine or Provence. Sir Ridley advise Klein to spend some time in Provence. He did. Mayle visited Provence in 2004, met with Peter Mayle, and spent almost a year researching the region and the wines. "Peter writes books that are like travelogues," says Klein. "They're more about atmosphere; the kind of book one likes to read on vacation, where you want to be swept away to a certain place. We needed to provide additional narrative structure on it. At the same time, we wanted to give moviegoers the same experience they would have reading the book." "Peter’s book is a jolly romp," says Scott. "It’s very much embedded in the lifestyle of Provence. For the movie, I found that the mechanism for the story needed to be adjusted a little bit, to turn up the volume on the character of Max, who needed to learn an important life lesson. The philosophy that Uncle Henry was trying to instill into this young Max really didn’t take." Scott and Klein decided the best way to do that was to depict Uncle Henry in flashbacks as a loveable ghostly figure from Max's past which "allows us to see the grooming of Max as a child, which pays off as the story unfolds." In fact all the characters in "A Good Year" are re-invented. When Ridley and I worked on "Gladiator", the metaphor was death. But on "A Good Year", we discussed the themes in terms of reincarnation; not necessarily from the dead to the living, but having the 'living dead', like Max, become revitalized from his experiences in Provence. Every character in this story has a situation that changes his or her life for the better," recalls Academy Award ® winning actor Russell Crowe. "Max has these memories of his uncle when he had his summer holidays here as a child," notes Albert Finney, who plays Uncle Henry. "He remembers them favorably, which suggests he had a good time with Henry. Young Max enjoyed his company. The philosophy Henry imparts on the boy has mostly to do with wine in particular, but around that is a philosophy of enjoying life. I think he's a good influence on the boy." Klein says he was glad to have Crowes input during filming. "You live with these characters by yourself all the time in your own head," Marc Klein offers about the craft of screenwriting. "Then, you work with someone like Russell Crowe, who's a genius. He came to me in between takes and gave me ideas about the character. He inhabited his character in a way that's even deeper than I could have ever hoped." "I always thought that Russell would be perfect for the character of Max," Scott adds. “Russell is like Max. Russell carries a lot of the innocence in him and manages to keep that innocence fresh, untrammeled somehow." Crowe is not the only aussie to get a guernsey in "A Good Life". For this film he is joined by rising star actress Abie Cornish who recently starred alongside Geoffrey Rush and Heath Ledger in "Candy". Abbie, who by the way comes from the Hunter Valley wine region, does a terrific job playing a young American girl, Christie Roberts. "Christie is a twenty-one year old American girl from the Napa Valley in California," says Cornish. "She learns that she has a birth father and that he's alive and lives in France. So, she makes the journey to his front door (which is when we meet Christie in the film). Unfortunately, she finds out the bad news about Henry, but meets a cousin, Max, whom she never knew she had. When Christie arrives on the doorstep, it throws something into the mix which changes Max. He doesn't really believe this girl and of course, he's wary of her. Eventually, the two characters find something in each other that they can both relate to." Max's love interest in "A Good Year" is played by stunning Parisian beauty, actress Marion Cotillard. Cotillard who was actracted to the role because of Klein's script states that she "liked the script’s spontaneity. I also appreciated Max’s journey." One cast member who continues to impress is young actor Freddie Highmore. "I'm the young Max, who’s based on the older Max, because they're the same character,” Highmore offers. “I watched Russell work a bit and we talked about the character and how each of us thought he was going to be. It just came from that. It was just great fun from the moment I stepped onto the set to be with Ridley and Albert and Russell." The star of "Finding Neverland" fourteen year old Freddie Highmore sums the film up superbly. "I think audiences will come out with memories of their childhood after seeing this film. The film will make you look back on the things that have happened in your own life. Young Max didn't know at the time how important the lessons were that Uncle Henry was giving him. But, as he got older and comes back to visit this place, he realizes how important they have been in making him grow up." The Verdict "The latest film from Sir Ridley Scott will have you leaving the cinema with a satisfied smile on your face. The setting is deliciously French, the characters are delightful to watch and the story is one of sweet redemption. In a world where money is everything and old values are discarded by many in their pursuit for wealth, "A Good Year" stands as a reminder to what real values are. The critics will most probably have a field day with Crowe in this one (not that he'll give a shit) but then they did the same with De Niro, didn't they? Beautifully photographed by D.O.P Philippe Le Sourd, "A Good Year" will leave you green with envy and wishing you too could, in real life, inherit something just like Max does. Good fun! 3 1/2 STARS." Cast & Crew Bytes "A GOOD YEAR" stars .......
Academy Award ® & AFI Award winner Russell Crowe ["Romper Stomper", "L.A. Confidential", "Gladiator", "A Beautiful Mind" and "Cinderella Man"]; 2004 Cesar Award winner Marion Cotillard ["Big Fish", "A Very Long Engagement " and "Fair Play"]; AFI & IF Awards winner Abbie Cornish ["The Monkey's Mask; "Horseplay", "Somersault" and "Candy"]; Archie Panjabi ["East Is East", "Code 46" and "The Constant Gardener"], BAFTA & Golden Globe Award winner Albert Finney ["Erin Brockovich", "Traffic" and "Big Fish"]; Four Time Ian Charleson Award winner Tom Hollander ["Gosford Park", "Stage Beauty", "Pride & Prejudice" and "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest"] and Broadcast Film Critics Association Best Young Actor Award winner Freddie Highmore ["Women Talking Dirty", "Finding Neverland", "Five Children and It" and "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory"] as young Max.
"A GOOD YEAR" was .......
directed by Sir Ridley Scott O.B.E ["Thelma & Louise", "Gladiator", "Hannibal", "Black Hawk Down", "Matchstick Men" and "Kingdom of Heaven"]; screenplay by ["" and ""]; original story by Peter Mayle ["Where Did I Come From", "A Year in Provence" and "Confessions of a French Baker"]; director of photography Philippe Le Sourd ["Melody for a Hustler", "Maybe" and "The Return of James Battle "]; original music by Marc Streitenfeld ["Matchstick Men" and "Kingdom of Heaven"] production design by Sonja Klaus [Set Decorator on "The Commissioner", "Dog Soldiers", "Lara Croft Tomb Raider I & II" and "Five Children and It"] and produced by Sir Ridley Scott O.B.E ["Thelma & Louise", "G.I. Jane", "Hannibal" and "In Her Shoes"]. Run Time 117 minutes Rated M [AUST] Copyright ©2006 - 20th Century Fox - All Rights Reserved Copyright Protected © 2006 - The Movie Pages & Impact Internet Services - All Rights Reserved