THE PLOT THUS FAR
Marla Sokoloff of ”The Practice” stars as Wendy, a smart single woman in the big city who’s never been able to find a good job or decent relationship. But when her estranged father dies, Wendy suddenly inherits a beautiful – yet struggling – Napa Valley winery. Now with the help of her best friend (Amanda Righetti of ”The Mentalist” and ”The O.C.”), Wendy will have to deal with a local winemaker (Barry Watson of ”Samantha Who?” and ”7th Heaven”) and his father, a shrewd competitor (Christopher Lloyd) who’s trying to crush her vineyard. Can a girl who’s grown used to a life of sour grapes learn to discover delicious new pleasures – and maybe even love – in the most unexpected places?
WHAT WE THOUGHT
Big city girl Wendy moves to Napa Valley after inheriting her father’s struggling winery, and soon falls in love with both the business and local boy Chris. But things get complicated when she learns that Chris is the son of her chief competitor. Family drama and mild romantic comedy takes place, as everyone tries to make their way through the world of competitive wine-making. People love booze, so I expect to see a warm reception to a film about booze that stars the chick from The Practice and Christopher Lloyd.
“The Chateau Moreux” is a decent flick that follows this recent trend of indie dramas about wine culture. I preferred “Bottle Shock” over this flick, but it really feels like you’re comparing apples and oranges. How much can you do that doesn’t delve back into the usual romantic dramedy trappings? I enjoyed most of the actors, but it’s not like there was a lot of material here to make it memorable. But, the wine selection was amazing and Starz/Anchor Bay went out of their way to make sure that exact wine selections were sent along with the DVD. Quite an amazing gesture and one that helped to get me through a lot of these year-ender reviews.
The DVD comes with no substantial special features. The A/V Quality is pretty strong with a robust Dolby 5.1 track that really blows the walls off. However, I did notice that the transfer fell a little flat. It’s not that big of a deal, it just looks like a film like this could’ve got the basic HD remaster. Oh well, they sent booze with the flick. A nice California merlot and a nice bottle of YN. I plan on covering that in a few days after the start of the new year. In the end, I’d recommend a rental.
RELEASE DATE: 01/03/2012
