I love Alan Rickman. If David Bowie had not died before Rickman, I would have been more upset, but I was still in shock and felt like Rickman’s death was a cruel, misguided prank directed at me. Unfortunately it wasn’t. Bottle Shock is the first Rickman film that I’ve seen since he died, which probably made me enjoy Bottle Shock more than I would ordinarily.
Bottle Shock is an ensemble film about two sets of outsiders in the pursuit of perfection who seek acceptance in their chosen fields and validation for their life choices. Rickman is a British expatriate sommelier, lives in France and wants to educate the French about wines from other regions. His scenes with Dennis Farina, who died in 2013, his only patron, friend and fellow expatriate, except Farina’s character is American, are particularly poignant and well-played. Rickman decides to travel to Napa Valley where we meet a rag tag group of vintners.
Without Rickman, Bottle Shock would simply be a Sunday night tv movie. Bill Pullman plays a wine maker who left a prosperous legal career and was in turn left by his socialite wife to follow his dreams with little to no rewards. Pullman is a bitter and largely unlikeable hot head and is in constant conflict with everyone in his pursuit for perfection. His son, played by Chris Pine in the worst wig ever, loves this world, initially seems irresponsible and only matures as Bottle Shock unfolds. There is a contrived love triangle with an intern, Pine and a fellow employee played by the eternally charismatic Freddy Rodriguez, who also has winemaking dreams. Initially Bottle Shock seemed to be taking an interesting turn regarding who would get the girl, but she ends up with Pine. Yawn.
There is a promising storyline about prejudice faced by Mexican-Americans who have more of a history with the land, but don’t have the financial resources to capitalize on their expertise. Unfortunately this storyline gets short shrift in exchange for highlighting the comedic culture clash between the dusty Americans and the seemingly elitist Brit, who thankfully carries and elevates the movie. By the end, Bottle Shock solely and predictably focuses the down and out Pullman on the brink of giving up his dreams after a devastating failure, but is saved and simultaneously saves Rickman from financial ruin. The underdogs finally win.
Everything that is great about Bottle Shock relies largely on Rickman’s excellent performance and timing, but the rest of Bottle Shock is cobbled together with trite storylines that simplifies the stories of the real life personalities who followed their dreams.