User Reviews

"They were your friends!" cries Maggie Harwood when she walks in on the pistol-holding, aged but well preserved Philippe. Lying on the rug behind him are his two, now dead, associates. "Well,' says Philippe, "we weren't that close."

Maggie (Penelope Ann Miller) is the heroine in this romantic comedy thriller. While the hero is the overly handsome, strong-jawed and mustachioed Oliver Plexico (Tim Daly), the real sex appeal comes from Philippe as played by 73-year-old Louis Jourdan. This was his last film. While many may remember him as the dashing and love-struck Gaston Lachaille in Gigi, he remains more fondly in my heart as Dr. Arcane in Swamp Thing. Like Dr. Arcane, Philippe is an incorrigibly well-mannered, egocentric and murderous creep. I suspect there are few actors as good as Jourdan who would be willing to semi-sing, while smacking his lips, leering and snapping his fingers, "There are chicks just ripe for some kissin' / And I mean to kiss me a few! / Then those chicks don't know what they're missin' / I got a lot of livin' to do!"

Jourdan does it. It's grotesquely funny.

The Year of the Comet is all about wine, and especially about an extraordinarily rare bottle of wine, an 1811 Lafite, that was once part of Bonaparte's cellar. In auction it could bring at least a million dollars. Maggie, who works for her father, the wine merchant Sir Mason Harwood (Ian Richardson), is sent to Scotland to appraise an extensive wine collection that Harwood and Company may be commissioned to place in auction. Maggie, who knows almost as much about wine as her father, may be "a funny, over-worked ragamuffin" but she got the assignment from her father by telling him he either gives her this chance to show just how good she is or she's quitting. Now she's knocking on the great oaken door of an isolated Scottish castle to appraise the wine. Unknown to Maggie, she's interrupting the torture of the owner by Philippe and his men. Philippe assures his victim that shoving the hypodermic needle with a certain drug right in the eyeball won't interfere with the man's vision...although it will cause exquisite pain later with each blink. All that we know is that there is a formula Philippe is determined to have. Maggie is taken to the cellar and this is when, brushing off centuries of cobwebs and grime while she looks at these hundreds of encrusted wine bottles, she makes her discovery...the 1811 Lafite. And it's just a short while later that Maggie makes more discoveries. First, she finds Oliver looking for her, the man who prefers beer and calls wine a beverage. She met him at a wine tasting at Harwoods. She and Oliver discover the body of the owner in the wine cellar and they discover Philippe and his crew absconding with the bottle of Lafite.

The chase is on! Sometimes Maggie and Oliver chase Philippe. Sometimes he's chasing them. They chase around with cars, motorbikes, helicopters, airplanes and rowboats. They chase scenically through the cold, rocky mountains of Scotland and the warm slopes of the French Rivera. Maggie and Oliver bicker, kiss, bicker, fall in love and bicker. And then they wind up having to listen to Philippe sing "Gotta lotta livin' to do." By now we've realized (this is no spoiler) that this adventure has as much to do with the secret formula and glands as it has to do with wine.

Year of the Comet strains to be a Hitchcock romantic thriller. While it doesn't come close it's an engaging, undemanding romp. The script is by William Goldman, a man who knows what he's doing with this sort of thing. Try Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid or The Princess Bride. He works wonders with the clichés he deliberately uses. The direction, however, is a letdown. It's clunky and never lets the script build much steam, either in the chases or in the romance department. I don't know what happened to Peter Yates, but the director of Bullitt, Breaking Away and Eyewitness just doesn't seem engaged. Miller and Daly are attractive enough, although Daly is better at being handsome than at being an amusing speaker of clever lines. Cary Grant needn't worry. The real pleasures of the movie, other than the plot, are Louis Jourdan (now nearly 90 and living in France) and Ian Richardson, such a sly actor. Ian McNeice as one of Philippe's men holds his own.

Year of the Comet is amusing fluff, undemanding and a pleasant adventure. I liked it enough to have watched it twice in four years.

Off-beat quirky romance / semi-adventure film. If you like the more indie-film vibe, this movie is for you. It is a little predictable, woman has a job to do, man has to go with her for protection, and despite their opposite personalities and the plot twists, of course they fall in love. Main character, Margaret, is sent to retrieve a valuable bottle of wine to sell at auction...and Oliver is sent with her to protect her. But of course, others are out to get the bottle for themselves (this is where the adventure comes in). It does move slow in some parts but overall I had a good feeling when the closing credits appeared. I'm glad I saw this at home with a pause button and some of my own wine. So, sit back and open a bottle of your favorite wine and enjoy.

The movie revolves around Penelope Ann Miller's character discovering, first a hidden wine cellar at a castle she's sent to catalog for her father's auction house.

Then she found a case holding a very large bottle...possibly Balthazar or even Nebudchannazer, of a 1811 Ch. Lafite...from a Year of the Comet, a vintage much more successful than the later 1887 Year of the Comet. Haley's, that is.

The movie becomes a romantic adventure-comedy, with Tim Daly pulling the Hero parts off. Louis Jourdan has the role of Mad Scientist, which he'd become excellent at :)

The huge surprise comes at the end, when the bottle is auctioned off and a surprise bidder buys it. And THEN shocks EVERYONE in the auction room by OPENING it. And selling glasses for, I think, ten-thousand dollars a glass, made out to a favorite charity.

Daly and Miller of course become an item.

This movie is beloved of wine geeks, like me. My nick in other worlds is the Winestone Cowboy (VBG)

It is a little bit cheesy but very entertaining movie. Sometimes the scenes are too exaggerated but especially with the performance of the male lead, it is very funny and entertaining. This movie made me feel like the actors and the producers enjoyed making it as much as I did when I watched it. There is some sort of easiness and natural flow in the storytelling.

I must admit I am a big fan of the lead actor, Tom Daly, from the TV show "Wings". I think he is really funny yet gorgeous. In this movie, he is the goofy and not-so-gentleman American chasing after this elegant European girl. Of course, the situations and contradictions are not very original, they are almost cliché, but he is very good at giving it a personal touch. I don't like writing spoilers but without giving away too much I must say, pay attention to the scene where he is in great pain after confronting the bottle box thieves, or when he is under the window of the girl. Also, the scene where he is trying to stall the bad guy saying "Maggie, Maggie, Maggie, .." numerous times. He definitely gives 110% effort in creating his character. Especially the mustache, funny, ridiculous yet still charming.. :) The lead actress is funny and beautiful, definitely carrying the hidden treasures of a beautiful,naive, stubborn and yet intelligent and diligent girl. Also, it is amazing how different she can look in different scenes, scenery, costumes, etc. But I must say, I am not that much impressed with her acting; a little weak compared to the main guy.

The supporting actors are great, too. I liked the lady who runs the local hotel/b&b talking to her son! Don't expect an Oscar-winning moment but truly delightful for a night in your cozy home with someone you love (guys,you will have fun, too, believe me) :)