Year of the Comet

Directed by Peter Yates, Year of the Comet follows snooty wine appraiser Margaret Harwood (Penelope Ann Miller) as she reluctantly teams up with a rebellious free spirit (Tim Daly’s Oliver Plexico) to track down an extremely valuable bottle of vintage wine – with complications ensuing after three other competing parties begin their pursuit of said bottle. It’s a rock-solid premise that’s employed to disappointingly middling and forgettable effect by Yates, as the filmmaker, working from William Goldman’s screenplay, delivers a sluggish endeavor that’s been suffused with a whole host of questionable elements – with the movie, for the most part, lurching from one scene to the next with little thought towards forward momentum or cohesiveness. (It’s impossible, ultimately, not to wonder if there were behind-the-scenes problems during the production, as the picture, which suffers from the chintziest special effects imaginable, predominantly plays like an unfinished rough cut.) Year of the Comet‘s failure is especially disappointing given the palpable, endless chemistry between Daly and Miller’s respective figures, and it’s clear, too, that both actors, but Daly especially, turn in thoroughly charming work here that’s generally far better than the film deserves – which, when coupled with a decidedly less-than-enthralling final stretch, cements the movie’s place as a distressing misfire of almost epic proportions.

** out of ****