A Walk in the Clouds

Coming home from the Second World War, Paul Sutton finds his marriage empty. On a train he takes for a sales trip he meets a pregnant woman. Victoria is afraid her father will throw her out. Paul agrees to pose as her husband for one day and goes with her to the family vineyard in Napa. The day extends. Alfonso Arau directed. Keanu Reeves plays Paul and Aitana Sánchez-Gijón plays Victoria, with Giancarlo Giannini, Anthony Quinn, Angélica Aragón, Evangelina Elizondo and Debra Messing in the cast. It is an English-language remake of the 1942 Italian film Four Steps in the Clouds. It was shot among the wineries of the Napa Valley and in the towns of Napa, St Helena and Sonoma, and the entire visual identity comes from those vines. The reviews were mixed and the box office was not: 91 million dollars against a 20 million budget. Maurice Jarre won the Golden Globe for Best Original Score. Who it is for: viewers who like melodrama in the classical shape and period romance. Who it is not for: anyone after realism. The film is deliberately in the key of a fable and its characters decide whatever the story needs.