Normally I am a huge fan of Russell Crowe's work which is probably why I was so disappointed with this film. Its central plot revolves around Max Skinner (Russell Crowe) and his vacations to his Uncle Henry's villa and vineyard. Max has since moved on and is now dominating the financial world in London. However in doing so has he missed the point about what life is really about. The film sees him inheriting the vineyard off his now dead Uncle. His first thought is to sell it for the maximum profit possible.

Whilst visiting the farm things conspire to keep him there, with plenty of flashbacks to when he was a youth on the farm - played by Freddie Highmore who while a good young actor can not possibly be thought of as a young Russell Crowe - whilst the director may have wanted to show an awkward young child and Freddie Highmore fitted the storyline its a very long stretch of the bow to believe this weedy kid could grown into Russell Crowe's character.

The film has some nice subplots playing on the 'French' and the cinematographicy is like a collection of fine landscape shots however the story line is very slow and the film somewhat 'arty'.

The film made a loss and was savaged by the critics. Although Russell Crowe is a great actor is requires more than just that to make a good film.

Unless your very bored or have a thing vineyards I'd give this a miss.

The moral of the story - of what you are doing with your life is important and a question you need to ask on a regular basis.