After Gladiator, Ridley Scott & Russell Crowe Made An Awful Rom-Com

Director Ridley Scott and actor Russell Crowe are best-known for working together on 2000's "Gladiator," one of the greatest historical drama films of all time. Six years later, Scott and Crowe reunited for a romantic comedy called "A Good Year," and it's pretty awful. The plot is contrived and the whole viewing experience makes it clear that Scott is meant to direct high stakes epics, not fluffy rom-coms.

"A Good Year" follows Crowe's Max Skinner, a guy who has just inherited a vineyard in Provence from his uncle. As he tries to sell the property quickly — he needs to get back to work in London — Christie (Abbie Cornish) appears. She claims to be his uncle's daughter, and, under French law, that would technically make her the new owner of the property. You may think this is going to be a taboo romance between cousins, but it's actually a romance between Max and Fanny (Marion Cotillard), the café owner he almost runs over at the beginning of the movie.

Outside of the unnatural feeling to the romantic storyline, Max is also trying to salvage his career in finance, which includes being suspended from stock trading for a week and getting another trader fired. "A Good Year" has a plot more akin to a drama, but is trying to force a romantic narrative that just isn't working because Crowe and Scott are out of their element in the genre.

Despite the outlandish plot, viewers generally enjoyed "A Good Year" — the film has a 66% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, way higher than the damning 26% critical rating. People enjoyed the French countryside setting, which creates the perfect atmosphere for love and is very pretty on screen. What's more, amateur reviews note that it's nice to see mega stars in a rom-com, even if it is one of Russell Crowe's worst films. Pro critics, on the other hand, stated that Crowe doesn't do a great job with the comedy elements. Many felt the film dragged, that the plot twists didn't help propel the story, and that the ending was executed poorly. It might not be among the worst movie endings of all time, but it still leaves a lot to be desired.

While "A Good Year" tries to play on the popular ending trope of a man finding love and realizing what he really wants in life, it ultimately doesn't work because, while Max quits his job and moves to France to be with Fanny, his only purpose is to be with Fanny. He doesn't want to help with the vineyard or find a career that suits him better — he just wants to spend all of his time on Fanny, leaving the work of running the vineyard to her and Christie. Because Max is a fairly unlikable character to begin with, it just comes across as an ending dictated by the genre rather than an endearing grand gesture.