A Good Year 2006

Critics score:
25 / 100

Reviews provided by RottenTomatoes

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: A Good Year is never less than visually ravishing, its warm, inviting vistas of the French countryside and its unhurried, pleasant vibe putting the viewer in the same frame of mind as Max. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: On a rainy day, A Good Year may be welcome fantasy; the question is whether anyone will remember it after the clouds have parted. Read more

Jessica Reaves, Chicago Tribune: It's no surprise that you can see A Good Year's plot twists and clunker of an ending from a mile away. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: It's the first time [Crowe or Scott] has tried his hand at comedy; there's a lot of self-conscious talk about the importance of timing, but the tony sense of entitlement tends to dampen any laughs. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: There isn't a milliliter of honest feeling from start to finish, and precious little comedy or romance. Read more

Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: There are some pretty funny things in there. Read more

Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: This seemingly unassailable trifecta of director, actor and setting is as stale as a week-old baguette. Read more

Scott Tobias, AV Club: Almost entirely siphons the magic out of [Mayle's Provence] Read more

Bill Muller, Arizona Republic: A Good Year feels as if it takes a year to watch, and not a very good year at that. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: A shamelessly enjoyable retread, an ode to la belle vie that has been well turned on a factory spindle. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: Figuring out why director Ridley Scott and star Russell Crowe were happy as can be to make A Good Year is not difficult. What's harder to come up with are compelling reasons to see it. Read more

Bruce Westbrook, Houston Chronicle: A Good Year builds so much fairy-tale contrivance with such boisterous high spirits that it's exhausting to keep feeling good about feeling good. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: The lush glimmer of the scenery is so eye-catching that it's easy to sit back and experience A Good Year as a kind of tony travelogue. Read more

Michael Booth, Denver Post: Full of pretentious grape-droppings on how wine is like life, only tastier and with a bolder finish, A Good Year is at best elusive to the palate. At worst, it's a bad pressing of a vintage that has no reisling to exist. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: I'll write A Good Year off as nothing more than a bad harvest. Read more

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: A Good Year is a chance for Crowe and his Gladiator director Ridley Scott to slow down and appreciate the good things, like beautiful women, good wine and a country home in France. Read more

Christy Lemire, Associated Press: It's an ambitious experiment, and not a completely successful one. Read more

John Hartl, Newsweek: There's a lazy quality to the movie. It's as if the filmmakers imagined themselves as taking a vacation while they were shooting it. Read more

Jan Stuart, Newsday: This flat-as-last-night's-champagne comedy is yet another epiphanic tale about a hard-driving corporate workaholic who learns how to stop and smell the roses, or the grapevine fertilizer, as is the case here. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: Close your eyes. And now imagine the whole thing re-cast and shot by Stanley Donen back in, say, 1962, with Cary Grant and Leslie Caron. Read more

Jack Mathews, New York Daily News: Like a fragile Provence wine left too long in the sun, Ridley Scott's romantic comedy A Good Year spoiled somewhere between the publication of Peter Mayle's novel and this cockamamie adaptation. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: A Good Year is like a promising wine that's a bit new to the bottle. It goes down rough, but there's this marvelous aftertaste on the palate. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: For those who don't mind pictures that fall into predictable rhythms, A Good Year represents a pleasant diversion. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: In A Good Year, Crowe gets to make jokes and wisecracks that show off his boyishly mischievous comic timing. Read more

Peter Hartlaub, San Francisco Chronicle: Despite some stunning visuals and a lot of nice moments, the finished product feels like the work of an actor and director who are out of their element. Read more

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Read more

Bill Zwecker, Chicago Sun-Times: A pleasant jaunt through one of the most beautiful places on the planet -- encased in a story that ends up making you feel that all is right with the world. Read more

Stephen Cole, Globe and Mail: As the audience moves from feast to feast, watching all the screen characters grow, glow and have fun, we can't help but feel like we're the only ones at a party who aren't drinking. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: Crowe, a superb dramatic actor, is congenitally incapable of humour, especially when he tries slapstick. Read more

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: Don't expect to be beguiled by A Good Year. That would be like trying to warm your hands at an artificial fireplace. Read more

David Jenkins, Time Out: Escapist dilettantes may find A Good Year light, breezy and charming but even the most rudimentary inspection will reveal the film's sickeningly rotten core. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: Russell Crowe may find himself discovering the simple joys of life in A Good Year, but audiences will be checking their watches during this joyless attempt at comedy. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Variety: A simple repast consisting of sometimes strained slapsticky comedy, a sweet romance and a life lesson learned. Read more

Nathan Lee, Village Voice: A Good Year offers little return on your own $10 investment beyond the spectacle of Scott misplacing his talents. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: Scott and Crowe, who last worked together on Gladiator, should have stuck with the togas; Crowe runs the emotional gamut from bored to perplexed to just plain miserable in a romantic comedy that is neither romantic nor comic. Read more