You might expect A Good Year (Russell Crowe, Archie Panjabi) to be little more than a sappy Provence vacation flick. Ah, that’s the brilliance of it. Done by the director of Blade Runner and Gladiator, events come flying at you at high speed. Everything’s show-not-tell, implied rather than melodramatic — the Bollywood version would require buckets of glycerine. Ridley Scott has a light touch in this one, save for a couple of hammy, man-of-the-soil scenes. There are few surprises in the arc, but many delights in the staging.

Crowe is vital and restless, a cross between a general and a crack addict, and he’s the movie’s master and commander. The cinematographer lingers on Marion Cotillard, a French actress with dreamy eyes. Panjabi has sass, competence, a babealicious bob and oodles of screen time. She’s rapidly becoming the go-to assistant in British films, a hotter, straighter, Punjabi Jeeves. Nila Aalia has a bit part as a newsreader.

This flick oozes mood and romance, especially in an outdoor film barsaat scene with Charles Trenet’s silly ‘Boum’ playing in the background. That track could put a smile on Jean Reno’s face. For a dandified version, try eating at Foreign Cinema in San Francisco.

The New Yorker played sourpuss, but this one’s adorable.

Related posts: A mighty team, ‘Yasmin’ in Queens, Panjabi having a very ‘Good Year’, The spy who loved me