While wine-making, especially in France, has historically been a business dominated by men (surprise, surprise), one of the most recognized and luxurious brands of champagne in the world remains Veuve Clicquot. If you have a couple of French classes under your belt, you might know that “veuve” is the French word for “widow”, and knowing that, you might wonder, why is this champagne brand called Widow Clicquot? Well, Thomas Napper has the answer for you in the form of Widow Clicquot, a romantic biopic based on the life of the titular “Grand Dame of Champagne” herself. Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin was married at 20 to François, the son of a wine-making family. Though the marriage was arranged, it quickly blossomed into a love match. Widow Clicquot is full of scenes between Haley Bennett’s Barbe-Nicole and Tom Sturridge’s François flourishing romance amid the vines of Reims, France. But this romance is tragically cut short when, seven years later, François dies and Barbe-Nicole is the only one left protecting her and her husband’s legacy as the vultures begin to circle on the vineyard.

Although the film vacillates between Barbe-Nicole’s mourning grief and solo management of the vineyard and an odd amount of wine bureaucracy about the Napoleonic Code of 1804, it’s clear that the heart of Napper’s film lies with the romance between Barbe-Nicole and François. Recently having directed episodes of The Wheel of Time, Napper cut his teeth as a second unit director for Joe Wright in his beloved period dramas Pride and Prejudice and Atonement. He was also a unit director on Wright’s underrated Anna Karenina. Given the Romantic nature of Widow Clicquot, Wright’s fingerprints are all over this film, even if it is unintentional. With Wright acting as a producer on the film along with his wife Bennett who plays Barbe-Nicole, the forte of the story is when the story gives into the Romanticism of the tale rather than the semantics of wine-making. From the lulling scenes among the grape vines to the passionate and emotional declarations of François and Barbe-Nicole, Widow Clicquot shines the most when it leans into the heart of the tale.

Everybody Loves Champagne But ‘Widow Clicquot’ Cares Too Much About the Wine-Making
Image via TIFF

While I’m sure there are vignerons all over France who might be more interested in how Barbe-Nicole refined what is now known as modern champagne using a combination of red and white wines, the most uninteresting part of Widow Clicquot is when it gets mired in the business of wine-making. The film doesn’t do the best job of explaining that the very reason Barbe-Nicole must remain a widow, rather than pursuing a burgeoning romance with her wine salesman Louis (Sam Riley), is because of the Napoleonic Code that only allows women who are widows to run their own businesses. But it does like to remind us at every turn that Barbe-Nicole is a woman in a man’s world.

While Madame Clicquot’s takeover of her late husband’s business is nothing short of a major historical event in the wine-making world and for female business owners, whether Napper pulls it off as a feat of compelling storytelling is another thing. The film frequently fees mired in the heavy drama of laws and codes, generally muddling those laws with the naval embargo between France and Russia at the time. It doesn’t properly convince us of how Barbe-Nicole turned her new version of champagne into the established drink of high society and celebrations.

Instead, the message it sluggishly tries to teach us is one you might expect. The story of how a woman with a can-do attitude, bolstered by her faith in capitalism, pulls herself up by her bootstraps and breaks through the glass ceiling of the industry despite her critics. It’s not a true lie, but it also robs the film of some of its nuance. Napper doesn’t seem to fully grasp that the champagne has become the least interesting part of his film.

Haley Bennett Is a Wonder as the Titular ‘Widow Clicquot’

The most interesting part lies squarely on the shoulders of the eponymous character. Haley Bennett is a marvel as Barbe-Nicole as she captures a wide range of subtle emotions. It’s clear from the film that, while the married couple were very much in love, it wasn’t a perfect relationship. François is implied to have some mental health issues and their marriage has immense highs and also plummeting lows. As the film slowly flashes back and forth in time, we learn about François and his passion for his craft, going so far as to sing to his grape vines to help them grow. We also learn about how he dies — which the film dramatizes in comparison to how the real man dies — and his death becomes the catalyst for Barbe-Nicole to grab the proverbial champagne bull by the horns and take over the business.

Bennett doesn’t shy away from the painful emotions of mourning. In one scene, she grieves François in a way that gives Heathcliff’s mourning of Catherine a run for its money. Cutting from that to a cheerful moment when she is eager to hand out wages to her farmhands after finally succeeding in her business, there’s a wide range of emotions to cover when playing this character. A lesser actor might not be able to fill all of the nooks and crannies that Bennett’s performance does. Coming a long way from her debut in Music and Lyrics, Bennett’s skill as a performer has only improved over time, with the most recent examples of her talents on display in both Cyrano and Swallow. It’s a blessing for Widow Clicquot that she is by far the most complex and exciting character to watch. While Sturridge is filling the shoes of a Romantic hero in some ways, Bennett shines brightly as a multifaceted star.

‘Widow Clicquot’ Stumbles During the Final Act But Is Still Redeemable
Image via TIFF

As the movie makes its way to the final act, it feels like Napper is trying to fit a complicated story into a neat box. The box fits a story of modern feminism, turning the Widow Clicquot into a sort of girlboss who defies the laws of men and blazes a trail of her own. But when the least interesting aspect of your story is the business angle, it turns a final monologue into a somewhat awkward and wooden performance. It’s not really Bennett’s fault as she is entirely convincing as Barbe-Nicole elsewhere, but it still feels painfully out of place.

In the final scenes, there’s a confusing character moment involving Riley’s Louis and Barbe-Nicole that feels so out of character and from left field that it actually made me reel back in protest. It’s an odd note to end the film on, centering Barbe-Nicole’s legacy back on the fact that she is a widow and not on the fact that she is an innovator. The film often feels like it’s struggling between telling a love story and telling the story of one of the most influential champagne makers of France, and it never truly strikes a proper balance. However, what works in Widow Clicquot is what matters: the woman at the center of the story. Bolstered by Bennett’s performance, we understand Barbe-Nicole’s dedication to the craft, her love for her husband, and her desperation for success. Bennett lifts the story up just like the bubbles in the veuve’s own delicious champagne, showing us the brilliance in this biopic drama.

Rating: B-

The Big Picture

Widow Clicquot focuses on the romantic love story between Barbe-Nicole and François, highlighting the passion and emotion in their relationship amid the vineyards of Reims, France. The film struggles to maintain a balance between the romance and the wine-making business, often getting mired in the details of the Napoleonic Code and wine bureaucracy. Haley Bennett delivers an exceptional performance as Barbe-Nicole, portraying a complex and multifaceted character who navigates love, grief, and success with nuance and skill. Nonetheless, the final act of the film feels awkward and lacks focus, overshadowing the protagonist’s legacy as an innovator.

Widow Clicquot had its World Premiere at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival.