I bought myself a DVD copy of A Good Year the other night. While I haven't read the book of the same title it was based upon, I have read Peter Mayle’s travel books about Provence and loved those. Ridley Scott also happens to be neighbors with Peter Mayle. Both live in Provence and this gives the film a great authenticity.

Starring Russell Crowe as Max Skinner and directed by Ridley Scott, who did Gladiator and Blade Runner to name a few, I thought that it had to be good. Russell Crowe was Gladiator, and after watching that movie, what woman in America didn’t want to have his babies?

A Good Year starts out well. The opening scene is in Provence with Uncle Henry (Albert Finney) and a young Max Skinner (Freddie Highmore) talking over a game of chess and watered down wine. We soon learn, as Uncle Henry puts it so well, that Max is ‘a little shit’ and yes, yes he is.

Moving on to Max as an adult living in London with his high earning job, expensive flat, and too many beautiful women to choose from, he hasn’t changed much. Max’s assistant Gemma (Archie Panjabi) keeps everything in line for him and informs him of his uncle’s death. Since his uncle didn’t leave a written will, everything goes to Max. Everything turns out to be a beautiful old house and a small, well kept vineyard.

Max goes to check it out. There he runs into (well, almost over with his car) Fanny Chenal (Marion Cotillard). She is his love interest because who else’s could she be? We also meet the man who has lived and worked on the vines beside Uncle Henry - Francis Duflot (Didier Bourdon) and his wife Ludivine (Isabelle Candelier).

Right when you get settled into the story of Max wanting to sell this gorgeous house in Provence, dealing with the Duflots, and fighting with the beautiful Fanny Chenal, another storyline comes up. An illegitimate daughter of Henry’s shows up out of the blue, Abbie Cornish (Christie Roberts). This only complicates the already very complicated.

I got the feeling they just tried to tell too many stories with this one. You have the story of Max’s personal growth and learning to love while his life in London is falling apart or coming together, and his assistant Gemma doing almost everything she can to undermine him. You have the battle over the house and vineyard with the Duflots and their trickery. You have the illegitimate daughter who could possibly get the vineyard, and you have the flashbacks to a living Uncle Henry and young bratty Max.

Each one of these storylines fights for space. In the end I felt as if each one wasn’t explained enough. It was all just too complicated to reach the very happy ending of Max and Fanny being madly in love while living peacefully along side Abbie and the Duflots.

It is worth watching for the scenes of Provence. The cinematography is very good, as well as the acting. The DVD also comes with lots of extras including a behind the scenes experience, commentary from director/producer Ridley Scott and screenwriter Marc Klein, and three Russell Crowe music videos. Yes — not one or two, but three!

Overall the movie was fair. I liked it much more the second time I watched than the first. Think of this movie as your first glass of wine. You might not like it the first time around, but it does grow on you.