“A Good Year” is a romantic comedy with action taking place in London, England, and in Provence, France. The main character (Max Skinner) is a driven bond trader in London; a workaholic, who does not take holidays or goes on vacations. He is only interested in making money and keeping up with his success. Then in a common twist of the plot Max finds out his uncle had died and left him to be the sole beneficiary of the vineyard estate in Province. He intends to sell the property, but circumstances prevent him from doing that immediately, and force him to stay there for a longer period of time. This is the place where he used to spend summer holidays when he was a little boy, which brings on the nicest memories and compels Max to reconsider his lifestyle.
One of the main themes in the movie is that of a professionally thriving person completely forgetting to enjoy any other aspects of life. So, if we had to sum up the main idea in a sentence it would be “don’t forget to stop and smell the roses”. The movie is very pleasant visually. The actors are attractive, the scenery is beautiful, and the food looks mouth-watering. Watching the main character revel in all of this makes it quite obvious that his previous career choices were all wrong. But that’s it; here is your “life lesson”, and that is everything the movie is about. Romantic scenes only take place in the last part and seem a little rushed and too sentimental, the humor, while not completely absent and not even completely flat, doesn’t offer that much entertainment.
Taking all of this into account, the movie can be...