From The Vine: Film Review

Cast: Joe Pantoliano, Paula Brancati, Wendy Crewson

Director: Sean Cisterna

There's little to say about From The Vine that the words "genial" and "inconsequential" don't cover.

Joe Pantoliano stars in this gentle and somewhat pedestrian tale of Mark Gentile, an automotive boss who suffers a crisis of conscience and ethics, abandons his family, empties his retirement account and goes to his hometown of Acerenza in Italy to purchase an old family vineyard that's fallen into disrepute.

What happens is entirely predictable (though the talking vine leaves is a surprise, something guaranteed to shake you off of your stupor) and while the film's beautifully shot, as is befitting of any film that uses an idyll as its location, there's little in there to fully dramatically grab the throat.

In fairness, the usually brusque Pantoliano is a fairly affable bedfellow throughout, a man whose faults don't define him and whose actions, weirdly, don't alienate the audience. His journey is an acceptable one to many of the older audience who will be engaging with this piece.

But there's little context as to how Gentile's crisis of faith comes about, save for some brief and heavy exposition, and little reason to fully ever worry about any potential outcome.

Maybe in some ways, that's the point of Sean Cisterna's film - a gentle journey that's supposed to sooth the soul in troubling times, as well as to remind of the kindness and unending heart of strangers and family.

Inoffensive in many ways, but ultimately instantly forgettable, From The Vine is less a full bodied drop of cinema, more a taster about mid-life crisis that feels like there could have been more in the bottle to satiate viewers.