AllMovie

Quiet and thoughtful, Uncorked is a theatrical-seeming bit of cinema that challenges the viewer to keep up with the ideas it presents. Too bad the scenario takes several wrong turns in reaching its conclusion; the resulting lack of focus makes the challenge of staying with it all the more tedious. Rufus Sewell, his tender eyes as big as a deer's, is well cast as the sensitive guitarist who abandoned music for a misguided career as a stock broker in an effort to keep his eccentric family afloat financially. Nigel Hawthorne is similarly well suited as zany Uncle Cullen, who intends to live the life of a mystic atop a white column at the family country estate. But Minnie Driver is a bit too shrewish as the wealthy cold fish fiancée who loves someone else. She's very good playing cold, but she gives little reason why Ross (Sewell) would find her attractive in the first place. The conclusion bears a few gentle surprises, but the film is not what is called a "big finisher." It's a small finisher that engages the emotions -- but just barely.