REEL CRITICS:Stars fall victim to date-movie cliches

“A Good Year” re-teams “Gladiator” star Russell Crowe and director Ridley Scott in their first venture into the alien world of romantic comedy. Filmed in the beautiful French countryside, there’s nary a sword in sight, or even an airborne telephone.

Quell snore.

Crowe plays Max Skinner, a self-centered London bond trader both admired and vilified by his peers. His estranged uncle Henry (Albert Finney) has died and left him a chateau and vineyard in Provence, where he spent many happy days as a boy.

But unsentimental Max decides to sell it for a tidy profit. This worries his Gallic gardener and winemaker, Francis Duflot (Didier Bourdon) and his ooh-la-la wife. Although they worked for Henry since Max was little, they now only look about five years older than manly Max. Must be something in that wine.

Do I need to tell you Max will have a change of heart once he leaves the cold, silvery London skies for the lush golden hues of France? Would you be surprised if he meets a sexy bistro owner, Fanny, (Marion Cotillard) who happens to be single and speaks perfect English? And what a coincidence when another lovely young girl (Abbie Cornish) shows up from America to meet her long-lost father — who also knows all about wine?

Some observations while watching “A Good Year”:

Light and curious, ‘Stranger Than Fiction’ pleasesClever and thoughtful, “Stranger Than Fiction” is a light-hearted look at a man living his life in someone else’s goldfish bowl. Will Ferrell is excellent in his understated performance as a quirky IRS agent. His life is so boring it runs on automatic pilot down to the smallest detail. Devoid of any spark or real emotion he wanders from one day to another in a quiet stupor of endless routine. All this changes when he begins to hear a female voice narrating the events of his life in startling detail “and with a better vocabulary.”

Thinking he’s going crazy, he seeks psychiatric help. This eventually leads him to a college professor of literature who helps unravel the unfolding novel in his head. Dustin Hoffman is perfect as the professor who leads him to discover the real-life author who seems to be writing the chapters of his life one day at a time.

Emma Thompson plays the famous author who unwittingly inhabits Ferrell’s thoughts. Maggie Gyllenhaal jumps into the plot as a sexy bohemian who takes the bewildered IRS agent to a new level of life experience.

This whole effort is only sometimes funny, but always amusing with its gentle twists and turns. In the end, this is a lighter, sweeter version of the strange predicament that plagued Jim Carey in “The Truman Show.” Someone always seems to be watching him, but he doesn’t know who or why.

“Stranger Than Fiction” is not profound, but it remains strange enough to place it at the curious edge of mainstream entertainment.