Blind Ambition: Movie Review

Directors: Robert Coe, Warwick Ross

A relatively genial documentary about an underdog wine-tasting group of competitors from a country where you wouldn't expect wine to be a thing has all kinds of sporting underdog comparisons.

The idea of Cool Runnings and the Jamaican bob sled team springs immediately to mind, but Blind Ambition is less interested really in the idea of turning its protagonists into something to be joked with, cocking a snook at the establishment and winking at its audience as it does it.

Blind Ambition recentres its narrative around four refugees who escaped their homeland of Zimbabwe and have made their names as South Africa's top sommeliers. 

Joseph, Marlvin, Tinashe and Pardon are all characters that embody the human spirit in the face of overwhelmingly crippling odds. One left his two-year-old son behind in Zimbabwe to live because the move to South Africa was a gamble that he didn't know they'd survive - it's that kind of story that directors Coe and Ross are following.

But rather than milking the story for mawkish sentiment and obvious uplift against the odds, the narrative follows more a tale of refugees making good in a new world, a narrative that sadly never seems to go out of style and in the wake of Ukraine invasion is devastatingly pertinent.

As the quartet form Zimbabwe's first ever wine tasting team, they head into the world of white privilege that is the World Wine Tasting Championships. 

And the rest you can, in fairness, probably imagine.

It's not being disingenuous to suggest that Blind Ambition does really what it says on the bottle - and very little else. 

It's a nicely grounded humane look at turning adversity into positivity but where the film falls short is that it never really fully gets to know all the men or puts them centre to their own story. When they head to France, there's hints of rivalry between two of their coaches, and tensions, but rather than needle their subjects, Blind Ambition's directors seem less interested in stoking any dramatic fires and opt instead for an inspiring tale that's fine, but could have soared.

It's not exactly vintage stuff, but it's also not a doco that's become corked over time - ultimately, Blind Ambition is genial enough to watch and smart enough to ensure that it doesn't outstay its welcome and give you a headache.