"Bottle Shock" (2008) - Movie Review

Any art form suffers from an ego of the talent for its uniqueness and mainly an arrogance of monopoly claiming himself/herself/themselves the victorious of it. Doubting their talent is not the issue it poses. It is the blockage to any more good talent. Marking a territory within a small area makes them feel good being the single creator patting their back as the best. When it takes a more common form of collectiveness, it becomes a region, country, cult or anything which suits the purpose being the best. In “Bottle Shock” we see it was the case when in the 70s French wine were universally the only place for wine. Anything else from across the globe was discarded and considered a sin of standing together with the line of the elitist mode of French wine. Thank god it does not happen that much for films.

There is British wine expert Steven Spurrier (Alan Rickman) residing his shop in Paris and very much is confirmed living on a heaven of wines and there are no other possible tasting wine to match it. But he also needs to run a business which is only gets occupied by his neighbour American business owner Maurice (Dennis Farina) who does not stop on the possible chance for American wines making it up for French. Steven being a British is about class and as he puts it, sophistication. In the meanwhile there are the acres of vineyard with one of them being managed by Jim Barrett (Bill Pullman). He has his hippie son Bo (Chris Pine) and his buddy Gustavo (Freddy Rodriguez) working for him. He is broke and he lays all his chances on his coming wine which he is detailing it to perfection, mounting immaculate to its place of origin.

Now you see what is happening, Steven and Jim collaborate to popularize the trend of wines, right? Not really. “Bottle Shock” is a mellow play without any signs of an effort to be great or even good. It allows its characters to develop and thankfully denies having plots for manipulating the script or the characters. There is the new hot throb in the form of intern Sam (Rachael Taylor) who of course is in the middle of these two young men but how subtle and peachy it is handled with ease is comforting. It of course ends in a “sports” film fashion because it has to and it did in real life. The melodramatic effects are eliminated and drama in its texture of a real life over the screen is maintained.

“Bottle Shock” intends to say is more than a single wine making it out there amongst the class of wine experts. It has Pullman and Rickman actually becoming a stereotype of their country. Pullman being the hard working American who does not stand to take an opinion from British who come all classy and down on the level of wines. Rickman of course has no tough time being the English. His compliments are the most egotistical and convincing a recipient of it might feel. But on the outside it gives that predominance and in reality it is the same road both the characters side on. While Jim says to Steven that he is limiting himself in this opinion, he himself does not come down when he has to make compromises and mainly a second chance. It is this thing which holds the scenes of Rickman and Pullman on a higher note than many other scenes.

A film becomes good when you sit through without restlessness and while not getting involved with the character, you still like to see how they are going to be. A great film though gets you involved and completely gets in the emotions and often putting the audience in the character’s position. “Bottle Shock” is a soothing good film where the characters are there for a reason and claim their place. It does not aim for high skies and yet it has the clarity in its story telling clear and mainly concise.

But “Bottle Shock” indeed has to be the way it has been said. Dramatizing it more would have only ruined. Avoidance of the film “Sideways” when a film involves a wine is near to impossible. Both the films have their central characters passionate for wine and connect them in the drama. What is noticeable in both the films are the handling of details yet not sidestepping the non-wine appreciators. It is no denial that wine enthusiasts will admire both the films a bit more than the regulars but it is the expressions and emotions for the drink through the characters which reels the real film. And “Bottle Shock” does that as smooth and sumptuous as the drink would do.