Uncorked by John Huddles (Review)

“Why does my being up here upset you so much?” Uncle Cullen (Nigel Hawthorne) asks the baffled, hyper-focused Ross (Rufus Sewell) from atop an Olympic-sized pillar Uncle Cullen has had placed in the yard. Through a series of bizarre and sometimes shocking antics and quasi-Buddhist epithets, Uncle Cullen attempts to show Rufus that he is focused on the wrong things in life and that some of what he is looking for is right under his nose.

Hawthorne is brilliant as the eccentric Uncle Cullen. Sewell demonstrates his versatility in the part of the slightly neurotic and misguided, but well-intentioned Ross, whom we sympathize with most of the time. And perhaps delivering some of the most enjoyable moments in the movie is Keone Young as the very quirky Japanese millionaire, Mr. Tang.

This film, first released in Europe in 1998 as At Sachem Farm and Tradewinds, has been released in the United States as Higher Love on cable and Uncorked on video. It is a totally enjoyable film about a very mixed up and dysfunctional, yet likable, group of family and friends delivering some excellent acting and hilarious moments.

Written by V Tee.