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Bottle Shock (Film)
Rating: M
Running Time: 105
Country: USA
Director: Randall Miller
Cast: Eliza Dushku, Bill Pullman, Alan Rickman, Rachael Taylor
Distributor: Roadshow
Film Worth: $4.00
Release Date: March 26, 2009
“…bland and boring…”
This film centres on an apparently famous blind wine tasting, which took place in Paris in 1976, which was also, as we are excitedly reminded, America's bicentennial year. French wines were pitched against Californian ones, all the judges were French, and you can probably guess what happened.
Alan Rickman, who should have known better, plays Steven Spurrier, the snobbish English proprietor of a Paris wine shop. He heads to Napa, California, in search of bottles for his upcoming wine tasting event. Most of what passes for a plot unfolds at a vineyard run by the plucky and taciturn Jim Barrett (Bill Pullman). Jim is proud and uncompromising, and so we're implicitly invited to laugh at one form of pretension (the upper class English variety) while simultaneously applauding another (the disingenuously modest and folksy American variant).
Jim has a difficult relationship with his long-haired and allegedly lazy son Bo (Chris Pine), and Bo is besotted by the similarly blonde Sam (Rachael Taylor). This provides an excuse for a lot of distressingly soporific soundtrack music of the West Coast sub-Eagles kind. Then there's Bo's best friend, Mexican wine buff Gustavo (Freddy Rodriguez), who waffles on about worshipping "the sanctity of the vine".
Bottle Shock is reminiscent of Sideways, which is not a compliment. It's bland and boring, like an extended wine ad. Not to mention predictable, corny, schmaltzy, inane, unfunny, flat, sentimental and utterly fatuous. Most of the acting is bad, and none of the characters are interesting. Watching it is about as culturally rewarding as actually getting drunk, and less fun.