willev1

The film is a well-crafted study of two fathers and two sons. One father owns a prestigious French vineyard but cannot accept or encourage his own son, whom he actually despises, despite the young man's constant attempts to please his father. The other father, terminally ill with cancer, had been estate manager of the vineyard. When his son, who had emigrated and worked for a California winery, returns to visit his dying father, the vineyard owner is so impressed that he attempts to lure the visitor back to France with an impressive job package... including an offer to legally adopt him so that he would share in the inheritance of the vineyard. So now the lines of conflict are neatly in place. One son versus the other. The dying father versus the vineyard owner whom he believes is trying to "steal" away his son... added to the basic conflict between a demanding father and his thankless son. The characters are skillfully drawn and flawlessly acted by a marvelous cast of French players. I thought the direction and photography were superb; you will also learn a lot about the art of growing grapes and producing fine French wines.

Yes, I read the NY Times' review and immediately put my name on the list to get the DVD, so I must have been one of the first to get it. I fell sleep after the first hour or so. It just wasn't a particularly good or interesting cinematic experience. When doing a mini-series for TV, the first episode is especially important. It's crucial to present an interesting set of characters in intriguing circumstances, played by attractive actors. Sorry, none of these qualities came through for me, and I love French and Italian movies and am certainly into European cultures. But this film or mini-series or whatever ... did not begin to cut the mustard. The two "young" brothers, supposedly in their late teens or early 20's when the film began, actually looked jaded and middle-aged from the very first shot. The photography and direction? Pedestrian at best. The initial story line? Improbable and uninvolving. So why should anyone invest all that time to see a piece of mediocrity like this. Yes, it may have gotten better later; I wouldn't know. I could not bring myself to take even one further look. I Vitelloni this is NOT!

This is an interesting drama built on some questionable premises: 1. That many priests are HIV positive, and 2. That a good student would be summarily expelled from seminary because he visited another seminarian's room alone in the early evening. Premise #1 seems to me unlikely, especially in the United States, but in Ireland...who knows?

Premise #2 is the situation which sets this drama in motion, but it is almost unbelievable that this seminary would expel a student for possible but unproven sexual misconduct, when the whole culture of the seminary was to keep any such conduct, real or imagined, deeply buried in secrecy.

That said, the problem of clerical celibacy in the Catholic Church is explored and handled well. The actors are all credible and the film moves swiftly toward the final confrontation scene when all the secret sins are exposed. Then the film is suddenly over, leaving many unexplained plot strands dangling and unresolved.

Luckily the DVD contains sub-titles in English. You will need them to understand the swiftly-paced Irish brogue employed by the cast.