Upon uncorking the classic underdog story that embodies Bottle Shock, the first thing you’ll hint at is its undeniable charm.  Based on a true story, Bottle Shock depicts the rise of Californian winemakers in the 1970′s, a time when it was considered that the only good wine was produced in France. Held accountable for opening the industry’s proverbial eyes is British born, French residing wine snob Steven Spurrier (Alan Rickman).  Spurrier sets out to the US of A to test the local wines and bring back a selection fit to go head to head with France’s best in a blind taste testing competition.  Upon arrival, he meets struggling winemaker Jim Barrett (Bill Pullman) of Chateau Montelena, whose livelihood rest on the success of their latest batch of Chardonnay. With the help of his hippie son Bo (Chris Pine), long-time employee Gustavo (Freddy Rodríguez) and the newly hired graduate Samantha (Rachel Taylor), the team at Chateu Montelena help enlighten Suprrier as to the surprising quality of the local wine industry.

Bottle Shock won’t go as far as to leave you Sideways from its lacklustre humour, but it will leave you satisfied from its delightfully palatable tale.  In fact, I’m surprised I found it this enjoyable; by all accounts, it shouldn’t be. The film consists of a formulaic and muddled narrative, a tacky romantic sub-plot and has its fair share of shallow characterisations (despite the fact many are based on real characters). Remarkably though, it doesn’t seem to suffer much at all because of it.

This might have something to do with the way these criticisms are not, in this particular instance, such a bad thing.  A narrative only gets labelled formulaic because it has proven to work well in the past, Bottle Shock proving that the underdog story still has the power to captivate. The afterthought of a romantic sub-plot isn’t so bad when you consider it’s possibly the only reason why we get to see the stunning Rachel Taylor in the film, which is perhaps all her character Sam has to offer. Lastly, the ever brilliant Alan Rickman makes for the perfect snob, regardless of whether he fits a blatant stereotype.

Verdict:

Ultimately, the shortcomings of the screenplay prevent Bottle Shock from reaching the top shelf, but that certainly doesn’t mean it won’t compliment your evening.

Bottle Shock hits Australian cinemas on the 26th March.

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