Widow Clicquot Parent Guide

Garbed in black, veiled and grief-stricken, the newly widowed Barbe Nicole Clicquot (Haley Bennett) ponders the vineyard her late husband loved: “It seems impossible that anything will ever grow here again. A great hush has settled over the vines.”

The young widow’s neighbors are less sentimental about the death of François Clicquot (Tom Sturridge). In fact, he isn’t cold in his grave before they offer to buy the land. Incensed at their crass presumption, the Widow Clicquot refuses their offer and insists that she will never sell the vines her husband loved, which will always contain part of his soul.

The men of Napoleonic France are not accustomed to being rejected by a mere woman, so they make plans and wait for her to fail. And failure seems inevitable. Heat, frost, and war are all ranged against her: either threatening the precious grapes or preventing the widow from selling her ever-improving vintages. But it turns out that her most dangerous enemy is going to be men…

Widow Clicquot fits neatly into what I call the “You go, girl!” movie genre. A woman faces long odds imposed on her by the patriarchy but digs deep, hangs in there, and fights back. I’m not being snarky about it: I genuinely like these films. Just because a film fits neatly into a genre doesn’t mean it’s bad. Widow Clicquot gives moviegoers exactly what they expect and does it extremely well.

A generous amount of praise goes to the cast, who imbue this period pic with life. Haley Bennett gives a powerful performance, switching seamlessly from a young bride overflowing with joie de vivre to an emotionally spent young widow, frightened but resolute. It’s her courage, her immovable determination that provides the rock solid foundation of the film. Tom Sturridge gives François infectious adoration for his wife and his vines, while also making his tragedy both believable and inevitable. And Sam Riley brings wine merchant Louis Bohne to life, with a seductive, worldly charm and expertise. An enviable secondary cast, solid writing, and a highly effective use of flashbacks to unroll the backstory make for a solid film that sustains interest throughout its tight 90 minute runtime.

This R-rated film comes with surprisingly moderate negative content, and, in fact, I think the movie should have been rated PG-13. (For comparison, Widow Clicquot scored PG in Canada and 15 in the United Kingdom, which is a broader range than I normally see.) Given the absence of profanity and minimal violence, the only real issues here are substance use and sexual content. Since the story is focused on the production of wine and champagne, no one should be surprised at frequent scenes of making and tasting wine. The bigger issue is opiate abuse: François smokes opium and takes laudanum. This drug use is never glamorized and is clearly shown to be destructive. Sexual material includes two sex scenes, one of which features fully clothed adults engaging in sex on a table, and the other of which involves no explicit sex but does have a woman remove her clothes (careful object placement means there is no graphic nudity).

As for the audience, oenophiles will probably love this look into the history of their passion. I don’t drink alcohol, so I was somewhat at sea with the details of various vintages, but that didn’t stop me from being fascinated by the very human experiences of Barbe Nicole. Mature audiences who enjoy stories about history and the strong women who changed it, will raise a glass to Widow Clicquot.