The beginning of the movie is particularly derivative: the would be black sheep of the family back in his native land after years around the world, this is as old as the hills , like the prodigal son of our Sunday school ;of course he thought his dad did not like him (which of course is not true),of course his marriage in Australia runs into difficulties ...cliché to end all the clichés...
Fortunately the movie has other qualities: the cinematography is splendid indeed ,filming on location in the Burgundy vineyard is awesome ;the grape harvest (with the exception of the scene when the harvesters fight with bunches of grapes ,a harvester would never do such a thing,and I know what I'm talking about!)atmosphere is well recreated ,particularly the feast which celebrates the end of the picking.
Besides ,the father who bequeaths his earth in jointly-held ownership to his children ,it's quite convincing : in Zola's "La Terre" , the father ,who was not still dead when he retired,did not go about it in a different way.
In fact,Juliette and Jeremie are much more endearing characters than their eldest sibling.Juliette is a modern woman, we perceive her firm independence of men ,when she leads her harvesters through her vineyard.Jérémie ,a family man ,is still under his father-in-law's thumb, a he-man who 's got plans for him .
Juliette is not going to let herself be pushed around by this in-law who has his eye on her valuable property ;but it will take time before her brother rebels ,although stammering out his angry replies.
On the other hand ,when Jean 's wife and their adorable child appear ,all become so predictable that,without his siblings , the screenplay would lose much of its interest.
Beautiful pictures, but an uneven screenplay.
