1995 period melodrama A Walk in the Clouds is set in post-WW2 California. Keanu Reeves stars as a war veteran who tries to begin new life as a traveling salesman. During one of his travels he meets beautiful Mexican American woman (played by Aitana Sánchez-Gijón) who tells him that she is about to have a baby out of wedlock. He volunteers to help her by traveling to her native Napa Valley and pretending to be her husband in order prevent scorn of her traditional family; while doing so, he becomes involved in her family’s wine-making business and gradually begins to fall in love with his alleged wife. Based on classic 1942 Italian film Four Steps in the Clouds and directed by Mexican actor and part-time director Alfonso Aarau, A Walk in the Clouds puts Californian locations, Emmanuel Lubezki’s cinematography and Maurice Jarre’s score to good use, helping the audience to forget melodramatic limitations of the script and Reeves’ acting abilities being visibly inferior to most of his collaegues’.
RATING: 5/10
