Like pure corn liquor poured into a fancy wine bottle, Ridley Scott's lush adaptation of Peter Mayle's novel about a ruthless London commodities trader who finds his soul in Provence is broad, hackneyed and stultifyingly predictable. Appropriately named Max Skinner (Russell Crowe) is an investment expert, the kind of trader for whom making money is a blood sport to be enjoyed like a fine wine — gentlemen's agreements about ethics and market manipulation be damned. Max's life suddenly heads south when he receives word that his Uncle Henry (Albert Finney), an English expatriate who lived much of his life as a gentleman vintner on his Provencal estate, has died. Uncle H...
Released:
2006
Rated:
PG-13
Length:
118 mins