A Label From Sundance or France Doesn’t Ensure Quality

By John Beifuss

“Bottle Shock” is a warm, modestly budgeted movie about wine that debuted at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. “Tell No One” is a French-language mystery thriller.

From those descriptions, one might think these films offer a worthwhile alternative to the typical Hollywood production. Instead, they demonstrate that the value of the foreign and so-called independent films that crowd American movie screens has become increasingly debased by moviemakers grasping at the gold ring of popular acceptance. These are “art” films that aspire – transparently – to be hits, at the expense of the artfulness of the production.

There’s nothing wrong with wanting to be liked, of course. All but the most perverse or conflicted artists want their work to be appreciated or at least experienced by a large audience. But when an “indie” film about a relatively arcane subject is as overdirected as “Mamma Mia!” and a French thriller scores lengthy scenes to songs by U2 and Jeff Buckley as if it were another unimaginative American cop drama with, say, Dennis Quaid, the movie culture shrinks rather than expands.

In the 1950s and ’60s, French “New Wave” films (made with a love for classic Hollywood productions) helped broaden the cinematic vocabulary of English-language directors and refine the palate of English-language moviegoers; “A Hard Day’s Night” and “Bonnie and Clyde” were among the masterpieces that resulted from this process.

Unfortunately, we now seem to be in the midst of what might be termed a cultural trade imbalance. Directed and co-scripted by French actor and heartthrob Guillaume Canet, “Tell No One” shows the influence of modern Hollywood at its most hackneyed, although the movie’s modest budget, Paris-and-vicinity locations and fine performances almost compensate for the stylistic soullessness.

In “Tell No One,” Franois Cluzet (who resembles a Gallic and more handsome Dustin Hoffman) plays a pediatrician who has never gotten over the brutal and mysterious murder of his wife eight years earlier.

When two bodies are discovered near the lake where his wife’s corpse was discovered, the investigation pulls the doctor into a (dare we say it?) Hitchcockian conspiracy that uncovers several skeletons in the closet as well as some new cadavers.

Adapted from a 2001 novel by Harlan Coben, “Tell No One” is clever and twisty. As a mystery, it’s top-notch. Unfortunately, it’s constructed like a calling card for Hollywood employment; for example, a montage of funeral and wedding memories is underscored with “Lilac Wine” by Jeff Buckley. In such moments, Cluzet doesn’t seem to trust his audience, or maybe he’s unsure of his material; either way, the result is a film that – like too many modern movies – provides its own Cliffs Notes as it unspools, eliminating ambiguity and making sure that every audience member reacts with the “appropriate” emotional response.

Even so, “Tell No One” is an exercise in asceticism compared with “Bottle Shock,” a cheer-for-the-underdog- and-the-good-old-U.S.A. would-be crowd-pleaser inspired by the real-life “Judgment of Paris” wine-tasting of 1976, in which upstart chardonnays and cabernets from California bested the favored wines of France, bringing worldwide attention and respect to American vintners.

Apparently concerned that oeniphiles don’t constitute a significant segment of the moviegoing public, writer-director Randall Miller and three other credited writers load “Bottle Shock” with about six “universal” subplots that are dustier than the bottles on the bottom rack in a collector’s cellar. Thus, we learn that Jim Barrett, the dedicated “hick” winemaker played by Bill Pullman, is frustrated by the aimlessness of his hippy son, Bo (Chris Pine), and the snootiness of his wealthy ex-wife. Not only that, but Jim is in danger of losing the farm, er, I mean, the vineyard, if he doesn’t make his payments soon. Then there’s Gustavo (Freddy Rodriguez), the young Mexican wine aficionado who has to cope with anti-Hispanic racism. And what a shock everyone receives when the vineyard intern shows up, and Sam proves to be not a guy but a hot babe (Rachael Taylor).

Meanwhile, over in Paris, an underappreciated British wine seller played by the appropriately dry Alan Rickman decides to host a competition between French and American wines to make a name for himself. He travels to California, where he comes to appreciate guacamole and the Colonel’s fast-food fried chicken as well as the grapes of the Napa Valley. “I detect bacon fat, laced with honey melon,” says a wine lover played by Dennis Farina; viewers are more likely to detect corn, with a bit of ham.

“Bottle Shock” is playing at Malco’s Studio on the Square.

“Tell No One” is at the Ridgeway Four.

– John Beifuss: 529-2394

See John Beifuss’ video review on Appeal TV at gomemphis.com

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movie reviews

‘Bottle Shock’

Rated PG-13 for brief strong language and sexual content.

Two stars

‘Tell No One’

Not rated; contains nudity and gruesome images.

Two stars

Originally published by John Beifuss beifuss@commercialappeal.com .

(c) 2008 Commercial Appeal, The. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved.