Bottle Shock is to wine what Rocky is to boxing, an underdog story torn from life, with just a hint of corn and malarkey in its bouquet, full-bodied wit and a joyful aftertaste.

It's taken from a true story -- the 1976 international wine competition outside Paris that was set up as a "goodwill" Bicentennial event between France and the U.S., but which was really meant to remind the world that good wine is French and everything else is merde in a bottle.

That was, until French judges in blind tastings scandalously picked Napa Valley wines in both the red and white categories, creating world headlines and changing the perception of California wines from swill hippies chugged between puffs off a bong to stuff recommended by sommeliers.

All of which is a mere framework for a terrific, sweetly comic performance by the underrated Alan Rickman, a typically solid one by Bill Pullman, and a charmingly mellow, smart-alecky one by Christopher Pine (soon to be best known as Capt. Kirk in J.J. Abrams' Star Trek).

Rickman and Pullman are actually the twin poles of the movie, separated by several thousand miles and culture, but connected in their souls as passionate losers.

Rickman plays Steven Spurrier, an Englishman going broke trying to be taken seriously as a wine-seller in Paris. His only confidante is a rough-edged American limo renter (Dennis Farina) from the shop two doors down, who is prone to oenoephilic pronouncements like "bacon fat, with a hint of ripe melon."

Across the ocean and across a continent, Jim Barrett -- an ex law-firm partner who gave it all up for the life of a gentleman vintner -- is facing bankruptcy, mainly caused by his own perfectionism in the quest for the perfect chardonnay. He gets no help from his son Bo (Pine), who seems to have no ambition and drinks (gasp!) beer. Meanwhile, his best employee, a philosophic young Mexican named Gustavo (Freddie Rodriguez), prone to pronouncements on the smell of the soil, is moonlighting on the side, perfecting the perfect pinot. (In the local bar run by Eliza Dushku, Bo parlays Gustavo's ability to identify any wine into a moneymaking scam).

Complicating Bo and Gus's friendship is Sam (amiably played by Rachael Taylor), a beautiful hippie chick who wanders into their lives the way beautiful hippie chicks did back then.

Spurrier's brainstorm: to gain respect in the French oenophile community by setting up the competition, to which end, he travels Napa in a beat-up AMC Gremlin, putting noses out of joint, even as he becomes impressed with the wine.

Still, he and Barrett, who should be the most kindred souls, detest each other. "Why don't I like you?" Barrett asks him. "Because you think I'm an asshole," Spurrier replies. "Which isn't true. It's just that I'm British... and you're not."

Director Randall Miller's visually beautiful, sun-drenched first two-thirds of the movie are worth the price of admission. The final act, of course, is pure Hollywood hokum, with a bunch of lucky breaks, "almosts" and full-out redemption.

Not that that's a bad thing if it makes you feel good.

(This film is rated 14-A)

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