The Guardian‘s John Patterson is calling Ridley Scott‘s A Good Year (20th Century Fox, 11.10), which stars Russell Crowe as a London financial scalawag who inherits a broken-down French vineyard, “another sad case of a comedy being made by people with no sense of humor whatsoever.”

Earth to Patterson: A Good Year isn’t a comedy. Really, really. It’s one of those tonic-for-the-soul movies. A mood piece about whimsy and effervescence and nurturing those things that need nurturing. It’s light, yeah, and it has supporting “characters” and Crowe smiles and goofs around, but that doesn’t mean it’s trying to be Bringing Up Baby. It’s about slipping out the back door and being a little bit happy at times, and it left me in a pleasant, sitting-outdoors-as-the-summer-sun- sets, good-glass-of-wine frame of mind.