A Walk In The Clouds Details

Speed star Keanu Reeves slows down to near-stasis in this cliché-ridden, 1940s-set romantic drama — the American debut of Mexican director Alfonso Arau following his success with Like Water for Chocolate. Returning from the Second World War to be reunited with his unfaithful wife, travelling salesman Reeves meets a pregnant girl during a business trip and agrees to pose as her husband to protect her from the wrath of her strict vineyard-owning family in California. Until a well-staged fire, happy peasants frolic among the grapes and, in Zorba mode, grandpa Anthony Quinn overacts as if only he can make up for Reeves's wooden performance. Sadly, despite its pretentions, this is merely a prettily filmed trudge through a romanticised past.

An over-sweet confection, so resolutely old-fashioned that in the 40s it would have been described as 'a woman's picture'; it is unlikely to find an appreciative audience of any sex these days.