I'd Rather Go to Wine Country Than Watch Wine Country

Wine Country is a Netflix Original Film about six friends on a trip to Napa Valley to celebrate their friends’ 50th birthday. The women all met when they were in their twenties working at a pizza restaurant in Chicago. Many things separate the friends beyond the typical time and distance, but they are determined to be together for their friend’s birthday and relive their youthful years together. 

Amy Poehler plays Abby, the planner of the trip. We learn very quickly that Abby has a tendency to over prepare and gets frustrated when things don’t go the way she plans. Abby has been laid off from her job, so her friend’s birthday trip has become her magnum opus as far as trips go. While the women are happy to be on the trip she planned, they are frustrated by the structure and strict schedule Abby enforces. 

It’s Rebecca’s (Rachel Dratch) 50th birthday and she’s struggling. She doesn’t feel 50 and doesn’t want the trip to be all about her turning 50. She continuously butts heads with Abby about the planning of the trip and offers “feedback” to her friends as a way to share her opinion on their behavior during the trip. 

Naomi (Maya Rudolph) is on the trip in desperate need of a distraction. It is very clear that she is avoiding some kind of bad news and putting off some inevitable information. However, she does her best to enjoy the trip and engage with the women she has her best memories with. There is drama between the friends, things they have left unsaid for too long, and Naomi isn’t afraid to face these dramas head-on. 

Emily Spivey, a co-writer on the film, plays Jenny. Jenny is on the trip, even though she never shows up for those kinds of things. Jenny is antisocial, but loves her friends.

Val (Paula Pell), is a lonely woman looking to find love in all the wrong places. The first night of the trip, she meets a young, beautiful waitress (Maya Erskine) at the restaurant they’re at. Immediately the waitress piques her attention and Val starts trying to get to know her. As the trip continues and Val goes out of her way to see the waitress again, she learns that maybe the age gap isn’t worth the effort. 

Catherine (Ana Gasteyer) is a workaholic. She’s a business owner with a major TV deal in the works, so the trip to Napa is occurring at an inopportune time. While she’s made the effort to show up, she doesn’t feel very welcomed by her friends. In fact, she feels like she’s always being excluded by them, even though they insist it is not something they are doing on purpose. Still, Catherine is stuck between her friends and her work, and that’s not a position she likes to be in. 

When watching these movies, regardless of what the movie is about, I try to see what I can learn from them. Whether it’s an older movie where I learn what people thought of women back when the movie was made, or if it’s a newer movie and I learn something about myself or other people. Personally, I don’t think this movie was meant for me. It is a movie definitely geared toward women in their 50’s; this is made clear to the audience when the women make fun of the younger generation at an art exhibit dedicated to the sitcom “The Nanny” and Fran Drescher. The women were very clearly just poking fun at the young adults and their tastes and fascinations, but I do think to make fun of a younger audience is to clearly say to the younger audience: “this is not for you,”. 

Though, something I learned watching this movie is the value of good friendships that will last well into middle and old age. As I watched these women gallivanting around Napa, getting wine drunk, and causing chaos, I immediately wanted to do the same thing with my friends. The movie details the importance of female friendship, and I have to give the film its flowers for that at the very least. You can tell the characters, as well as the women playing them on screen, all really care for each other and that’s really valuable to see on film.

The movie had a lot going on. From start to finish, we are introduced to more and more information about these women. A lot of the information we are given is provided through conversation and gossip between friends, especially details on the women’s home lives, which we know very little about otherwise. We are told that Rebecca’s husband sucks and that none of her friends like him, but we see only one moment of Rebecca and her husband together. They do seem to have a rough relationship and it makes sense that the women would think so, but it’s strange how often it comes up for us never to be shown why they think he sucks so much. This is a trend that continues throughout the movie. We are given little pieces of information about these women that are supposed to flesh the characters out and make them seem like real individuals with real problems, but they mostly fall flat or aren’t fleshed out enough to make the characters really come alive. 

This movie could have benefitted quite a bit by cutting the cast down to four main characters. I think there were just too many friends on the trip, and then more characters and friends are brought on throughout the trip like Tammy (Tina Fey)  and Devon (Jason Schwartzman). It felt like all the friends in the friend group were fighting for screen time, for fleshed out characterization, and instead they were all only halfway fleshed out. 

I have a few smaller beefs with the movie. The first occurs with the character Abby. Amy Poehler co-wrote, directed, and starred as Abby in this movie. Abby feels incredibly familiar; she is a less charming and hilarious Leslie Knope and with Amy Poehler playing her, it’s hard to escape from. I wish they would have had one of the other ladies in this role, it would have been more interesting to see Amy Poehler play someone else. I loved Leslie Knope in Parks and Recreation and seeing a version of her in this movie that’s not fully fleshed out, not quite as funny, and pessimistic at best, is hard to watch. I love Amy Poehler too, and I think she’s perfectly capable of playing another role instead of rehashing a character she’s played before. 

Another small beef is with the romance between Val and the waitress, Jade. I’m not sure what the intended age gap was supposed to be between the two. Late twenties vs. late 40’s? I know they were both of legal age, but it was off-putting. Especially when the actors were saying things like “Age is just a number” in a movie that came out in 2019. We’ve come far enough to know how dangerous a statement like that can become. While I don’t think there was anything severely wrong with the relationship in the movie, I just found it to be unnecessary. The relationship became a device to give Val a little bit of a plot and to then give the women reason to make fun of the younger generation. That was it. It wasn’t necessary, so I don’t know why it needed to be included.

Before I finish this review, I want to quickly shout out Tina Fey in this movie. Her character, Tammy, was so funny and so different from anything I’ve seen Tina Fey do. I really enjoyed her in this movie. Her character goes through some growth as well throughout the film in the best of ways. If you’ve forgotten that Tina Fey is an icon, it’s time to start remembering it. 

Do I think Jacob would like this movie? No, I don’t. I think he would have a lot of questions that would never get answered. I feel like he wouldn’t appreciate the dynamics of a female friendship as much as I certainly do, and without that there isn’t much to appreciate about this movie. I’m sure he would love Tina Fey’s character in this movie though, it really was a highlight.

As always, I suggest my readers watch the movies and form their own opinions about the films. However, if you’re strictly taking my advice, I’d say you could skip this one. There’s always something to learn in stories whether they're written or on screen, but I’d say there are other stories with the same lessons told quite a bit better than they are in Wine Country. With all the great women in comedy that appear in this film, I expected a bit more from it.