PodBill Just what I expected

Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Ariella Broughton It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Deanna There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

morrison-dylan-fan Getting the internet back on at home after 2 days of the server crashing,I decided to take a look at the movies listed on BBC iPlayer.Getting near the end of the list,I noticed a splendid looking,dark French Drama,which led to me getting ready to find out what vintage the film is.The plot:After running the family vineyard for decades, Paul de Marseul starts to become aware that some point soon he will have to pass the Marseul legacy over to the next generation:his son Martin.Whilst past generations have made the transitions go smoothly,Paul is only able to look at Martin with pure hatred,as Paul treats his son to constant bullying,which includes blaming him for the death of their wife/mum,and Martin being unable to get his girlfriend pregnant. Learning that his dad (and friend of Martin) François Amelot is struggling in his battle with cancer, Philippe Amelot decides to go and support his dad.Meeting Philippe,Paul is thrilled to find that Philippe has all the qualities Martin lacks.Suspecting that François is near death (what a friend!) Paul starts making plans to hang a new son on the vineyards.View on the film:Sweeping over the vineyards,co-writer/(along with Laure Gasparotto & Delphine de Vigan) director Gilles Legrand and cinematographer Yves Angelo unwrap the darkness decaying the heart of the Marseul family.Taking inspiration from Film Noir sheen, Legrand and Angelo paint the wine in a golden ruby,which masks the rot setting in at the centre,which Legrand superbly unveils by transforming the Marseul's wine vault into a Gothic Horror crypt,where the bitter anger consuming Paul is allowed to ferment.While the way Paul treats Martin is extremely harsh,the screenplay by Legrand/ Gasparotto and Vigan make each sharp line of dialogue land with a real punch,due to the writers cleverly using Paul's viciousness to place him in a deadly corner. Giving Paul a "warm uncle" shine,the writers wonderfully send Paul down an unforgiving Film Noir loner path lit up by Paul isolating himself by hurling snarling swipes at all who stand in his way,until Paul is left as a monster in his self-imposed den.Soaked in buckets of misery, Lorànt Deutsch gives a thrilling performance as Martin,whose bruised knuckles Deutsch digs deep into,whilst dapper Nicolas Bridet makes Philippe look like he is walking on water with his savvy charms.Stomping down on the grapes, Niels Arestrup gives a thunderous performance as Paul,thanks to Arestrup joyfully burning Paul's cuddly side and digging up the pure Film Noir cruelty,in a movie which should be watched through the grapevines.

sylvie_hurat This movie is inept, not because of its acting, which is not top notch but because of the script: characters are unidimensional and we never know whose story it is.... The women characters, though hardly visible, at least have a like ability that the men characters lack Besides the lack of interesting characters, the story isn't interesting. It is highly predictable (no, I'm not going to tell you how it ends, but you can figure it in the first ten minutes of the film, if you are not yet discouraged. The only redeeming scenes (and probably those who explains the high grades given by reviewers and more sadly by the metascore critics) are those showing the fabrication of wine. Probably those who enjoyed the movie enjoyed wine, and that is a good excuse. To summarize, there are many better ways of spending 90 minutes of your time, one of which is to open a bottle of wine.

cestmoi The lead is a distinctive actor with all the subtlety of the script in this role. The poor beleaguered son is so unsure of his place in the world that his masochism in remaining in his father's universe is barely believable...though his behavior begs for more beatings of a psychological kind. The loyal wife of the junior loves him for reasons unknown to the viewer; under the sheets, perhaps? The once (1960-70) disco scene is resurrected here to hardly any purpose. The manager of the vineyard, dying of cancer, gets the best draw of script which he fulfills with professionalism and dignity, and his practical and loyal wife plays her role beautifully. As to the prodigal would be son, an insensitive cad and gainer well played here. The logic of the script is minimal and the resolution more abrupt and fevered than what precedes it logically allows. Beautiful shots of the vineyard. All in all, this vintage is pas mal but no chapeau.

richard-1787 I found this movie aggravating. The head of a French vineyard constantly belittles his son - near the end, we find out that it is at least in part because the father lost his wife in part because of his son's ill health. The father eventually favors the son of his foreman. But the son is not presented in a sympathetic way, and though his situation is unfair, we never get a chance to really feel for him.The acting is all fine, and some of the shots of Provence are wonderful. There were the makings here of a much better movie, but that would have required rethinking the script, and therefore probably finding a better director.----------------------------I watched this movie again this evening, and that gave me no reason to improve my previous opinion of it. The only reason this movie works at all is because the lead, Niels Arestrup, has so much charisma, that you remain interested in his thoroughly disagreeable character despite his many flaws; had a less charismatic actor played the role, the character would have been so hard to stomach that I doubt anyone would have sat through the movie.On the other hand, Lorànt Deutsch, who plays his son, comes across as having no charisma whatsoever. (What makes his extremely attractive and intelligent wife stay with him the movie never begins to make clear.) As a result, it is very hard to feel sorry for him, even through his father treats him like dirt for no good reason.This is just a dissatisfying movie. A shame, because there were the makings of an interesting story here.