The Vintner’s Luck (Caro, 2009)
New Zealand’s ability to kick ourselves while we are down was on full show when The Vintner’s Luck hit cinemas in November 2009.
Knox’s 1998 novel had made her a literary superstar, won a swag of awards domestically and was shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction. Combined with interest from Whale Rider’s Niki Caro to direct, a film adaptation seemed like a no-brainer.
But our great nation’s ability to seize upon any negativity – largely driven by Knox’s commercially unwise badmouthing – meant that a tall poppy pile-on was inevitable.
One of the purposes of this newsletter is to encourage us to look past the received reputation of the work – even my own initial reactions – to find something worthwhile. As I get older, I like to think that it’s better to be right than to be first.
There may be plenty of shortcomings to The Vintner’s Luck but it doesn’t deserve the scorn that it now lives with.
My review (in the same column as a pan of Roland Emmerich’s disaster-flick 2012):
The shortcomings of The Vintner’s Luck, the NZ Film Commission funded adaptation of Elizabeth Knox’s magical-realist novel, have been delineated in painful detail by the world’s reviewers but I’d like to take this opportunity to point out a few positives for a film that does not deserve all the infamy it has been getting. In rural France in the early part of the 19th century a peasant grape grower (Jérémie Renier) has ambitions to make his own wine, and with the help of a mysterious and soulful angel (Gaspard Ulliel) he does so. The positives here are the performance of the great Vera Farmiga as the local landowner who forms a successful partnership with Renier, director Niki Caro’s arresting imagery (some of the close-ups of nature at work are startling and the landscape is photographed superbly by Dennis Lenoir. It seems a shame that the knocking will mean that The Vintner’s Luck will probably not get much of an audience when I’m sure there are some who would appreciate it. I’d take its failed ambition over the ugly cynicism of 2012 any day of the week.
Also in that 2009 review: 2012 by Roland Emmerich, Sam Mendes lovely direction of a script by Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida, Away We Go, and the great Spanish horror sequel [REC]2.
Where to find The Vintner’s Luck
Aotearoa: Digital rental from AroVision or the official New Zealand Film Commission on demand site
Australia: Digital rental from Apple, Google or YouTube
USA: Digital rental from Apple or YouTube (NB It’s known as A Heavenly Vintage if you are searching)
UK: Streaming on IconTV
