Haley Bennett stars as Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin in Widow Clicquot.Caroline Dubois/Supplied
Widow Clicquot
Directed by Thomas Napper
Written by Erin Dignam
Starring Haley Bennett, Tom Sturridge and Sam Riley
Classification PG; 89 minutes
Opens in select theatres July 19
The Prosecco equivalent of Champagne dramas, the new film Widow Clicquot is a true glass‐half-empty affair.
A biopic with all the elements of prestige but not much in the way of confidence or artistry, the film chronicles the real-life story of Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin, who at just 27 years old became the “Grande Dame of Champagne” following the death of her husband, the proprietor of the Clicquot winery at the turn of the 19th century.
Facing insurmountable odds – which include not only the skepticism of her mean-spirited father-in-law, the rampant misogyny of French society at the time, and above all, the threats of the raging Napoleonic Wars – Barbe-Nicole was able to develop unique methods to secure her place in the bubbly history of Champagne.
That all sounds like ripe, juicy material for a historical biopic, yet as directed by Thomas Napper, Widow Clicquot falls flat. From its very conception, the whole production feels off the mark – why, after all, make a thoroughly French drama with English-speaking performers and storytellers? Yes, Ridley Scott did the same last year with the Joaquin Phoenix-starring Napoleon, but at least in that case Scott seemed to have a sense of good oh-piss-off humour about it.
Here, the whole affair is stultifyingly self-serious in that British stiff-upper-lip manner. As a result, an extraordinarily French story is flattened into conventional Euro-pudding nothingness. There is little here to surprise, less to even expect and still savour.
As the title character, Bennett delivers the requisite amounts of portrait-of-a-lady grit and determination as a woman both ahead of and trapped by her era.Supplied
The performers sometimes, but not always, outwit their material. As the title character, Haley Bennett – an American actress accented here as a Brit, playing a Frenchwoman – delivers the requisite amounts of portrait-of-a-lady grit and determination as a woman both ahead and trapped by her era.
Sam Riley, as Barbe-Nicole’s wine-industry fixer and potential lover Louis, is far more sly and shifty than the screenplay’s dialogue allows, with the actor building a fully formed character via winks and side-eye glances alone. Less enchanting is a struggling Tom Sturridge as Barbe-Nicole’s late husband, who is glimpsed in recurring flashbacks as the character gradually descends into eye-rolling madness.
Given that the name “Veuve Clicquot” today carries the same cachet as Moet & Chandon – the former half of that equation popping up here briefly as a rival to Barbe-Nicole – the central tension of Napper’s film rests not in its hero’s success but her struggles. While the trials and tribulations arrive frequently, there just isn’t much in Barbe-Nicole’s life that cannot be solved by Bennett sighing mightily, keeping calm and carrying on. The film is also oddly uninterested in detailing the exact methods that the Grande Dame innovated in order to secure her position at the top of the Champagne pops.
Mixed all together with a rote visual sensibility – only one scene in which Napper captures the mists rising from the vineyards in the early morning dawn does the film seem interested in engaging the eye – and Widow Cliquot goes down rather rough. But the film does share one similarity with the best bottle of Champagne: At just 89 minutes, it is over and done before you know it. Cheers to that.
Thanks to its stultifyingly self-serious, British stiff-upper-lip manner, an extraordinarily French story is flattened into conventional Euro-pudding nothingness.Supplied