Bottle Shock (110 Minutes)
Just because I didn’t blackout watching this doesn’t mean you should go in sober.
I’ve never considered wine movies their own genre. Is it basic of me to say I just watch Sideways every once in a while and leave it at that? Probably. I mean, there are some others you could consider in the category that I’ve seen, Wine Country and A Walk in the Clouds for example, but both are terrible and don’t really do oenophiles any justice. I actually found Wine Country so boring I got incredibly drunk on tequila and don’t remember the second half.
This week I drank a lot of wine but stayed sober for Bottle Shock, which is a pretty good sum-up of my thoughts. But, I gotta give the people what they (don’t) pay for. So let’s get into it…
Wait, no I need to get something off my chest.
I am so distracted by the fact that the writer/director of this movie, Randall Miller, was later in prison for involuntary manslaughter. Six years after Bottle Shock, a camera assistant (Sara Jones) was killed on the set of one of his films. From this tragedy, Miller became the first director to be sent to prison for the death of a crew or cast member. Which I guess also makes him the first to break his probation once he was released from prison by working on a movie. Yeesh. I literally CAN’T TAKE MY MIND OFF OF THIS. Especially with the Alec Baldwin/Rust situation that is ongoing, it feels timely and important.
Quick Plot Overview! Bottle Shock is a coming-of-age story for Napa Valley wines and is based on the true story of some of the people making said wine. Set in 1976, it follows the story of the yet-to-be-famous winery Chateau Montelena. Its crabby owner Jim Barrett (Bill Pullman) and his hippie son Bo Barrett (Chris Pine in a truly terrible wig I will get to in a moment), fight one another about the winery’s future (literally in a backyard boxing ring) which is thrown into question by the snobby wine Brit, Steven Spurrier (Alan Rickman) who has arrived in the US to try American wine. You should know that Napa wine was still considered highly speculative at the time. We ultimately land at the Judgment of Paris (a very real thing), where American wines swept the contest and surprised lots of snobby French people. Insert an immigrant best friend, a hot chick intern, Eliza Dushku behind a bar, and Dennis Farina in front of one--and you got yourself a wine movie!
Under no circumstances should you watch this movie without a glass many glasses of wine. Just because I didn’t blackout watching this doesn’t mean you should go in sober. This movie can be very fun if you’re about halfway through a bottle of wine. In fact -- Bill Pullman delivers a line so poorly toward the end of the film I LEAPT FROM MY COUCH with laughter and insisted Frank play it back three more times so I could ensure I wasn’t seeing things. Amazing!
Overall, for a pretty loaded cast (loaded meaning, like, lots of great actors not drunk…), the movie falls short. It’s simply not a “good” movie and it isn’t quite bad enough to be enjoyed that way either. Perhaps the biggest issue I have with the movie is that it takes a lot of liberties from the true story-- but those liberties don’t add anything to the movie! I will always suspend my disbelief if the choices are in support of great storytelling. But bending the truth to tell a mediocre story-- that’s illegal here at The 90-Minute Movie.
To start, I was really let down by the depiction and treatment of Gustavo Brambila (Freddy Rodriguez) who in the film is an employee at Montelena and a friend of Bo’s. The movie’s script regularly builds him up and then tears him down. Here’s the shortlist:
We learn he can name the type of wine, the winery and the vintage from one sip /// just kidding it’s a hustle
The beautiful intern Sam (Rachael Taylor) chooses him over Bo /// just kidding she winds up with Bo, Gustavo was a fling
He comes from an immigrant family and his father worked the vines for years making very little and they know wine better than any privileged kid (Bo) ever could /// just kidding we never learn the outcome of his wine at the Judgement
He’s the best at what he does and he’s making his own wine secretly /// instead of being proud of him, or Gustavo coming out on top, Barrett fires him on the spot
Now, that is a LOT of choices and a LOT of bad choices. So you can imagine how pissed I was when I learned after that fact that Brambila was hired AFTER the Judgement and is actually one of the first Latinos to earn a degree in fermentation science from UC Davis. So, every single one of those choices was intentional by the scriptwriters. They don’t serve the story well in any capacity and don’t teach the audience any lessons. Other than Chris Pine is always going to come out on top no matter what. Gross. (In support of Brambila and in defiance of this fucking awful script I am linking the Gustavo Winery store here, so you can all purchase his wine.)
Next, I promised I would also get into Chris Pine’s wig. But I don’t know if I have the strength of character to do this. I’m NOT drinking wine at the moment and that’s tough.
This thing was so distracting. I caught myself staring at the wig line for most of the movie. Why couldn’t he grow out his natural hair? This was released a year before Star Trek, but maybe he needed to keep it short for another reason? I don’t know. I don’t see any justification for this wig and I am forever haunted.
Another weird choice was the boxing ring in their backyard. So, Bo and his dad, Jim, don’t see eye-to-eye. I guess you could say this is a theme of the film… if you wanted. Bo is a hippie who likes to surf and have sex with randoms. Jim is an ex-businessman trying to live his wine dreams. He wants Bo to be serious. Instead of talking things through, they fight them out in a homemade boxing ring out in the backyard at the winery. This is so heavy-handed I don’t think we can call it a metaphor. I think at one point someone actually says, “Want to talk?” “No let’s fight it out.” Ok Machismo! Why add this? It is not real. It never happened. Why why why why!?
And that brings us finally to Alan Rickman. Who does an ok job with a terrible script. He does the Rickman quips and the eye rolls. He fulfills the promise of having him in the film. But I never felt that he, as Steven Spurrier, was ever that passionate about wine. I guess they were going for this thing where he only likes French wine, and that is why his wine shop is failing, and it is American wine that will save him from himself. (And Dennis Farina who is the catalyst for his trip.) That’s all great BUT… he honestly seems bored by everything and everyone. And I got bored for him. And then I got bored for me. There is this one magical moment where he tries guacamole for the first time and I was really happy for him because guac is a thing to be enjoyed by all people everywhere. But otherwise, he is a very glum man drinking wine:
Maybe I’m being way harsh, Tai. Because I did enjoy myself while watching it. I was LEAPING off the couch remember? I was laughing at their plight and I was screaming at the wig and I was giggling at the intern’s strange open-air vineyard shack that she’s living in for the summer. It was fun! …But was it the wine? Probably.
I would say come for the Chris Pine wig and come for the single line of dialogue that Bill Pullman delivers 100 minutes in. Stay for the excuse to drink a bottle of wine. But otherwise, don’t expect too much.
A big thank you to Julie for this movie tip. Have something I should watch? Text me, beep me, drop it in a comment.
Sources
https://www.imdb.com/news/ni63539842/?ref_=nws_nwr_li
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/bottle_shock
https://www.decanter.com/wine-news/judgment-of-paris-montelena-fetches-us11325-53483/
https://cluboenologique.com/story/life-lessons-with-bo-barrett-of-chateau-montelena/
https://www.napavalley.com/blog/bottle-shock-movie-fact-vs-fiction/
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/bottle-shock-2008
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bottle_Shock
https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/movie-reviews/bottle-shock-188044/
https://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/08/arts/08iht-fmreview8.1.15076105.html
Great choice to revisit ... This is one of the most enjoyable poorly made movies in history. There's so much wrong with it, but overall it works! If Bottle Shock were on tv now I would be drinking a glass of wine and watching as I type this. I'd likely be reading your review and/or scrolling on Instagram at the same time, but it would be on and I would focus on the key plot points when necessary. :) Excellent piece as always!