The Vintner's Luck: How Do You Talk to a Gay Angel?

Once upon a time, the vampire genre was a hip, gayish place, saved from falling into disrepair by stylish stories like The Hunger and Interview with the Vampire. Now, though, the lusty heterosexuals of Twilight and True Blood have moved in and indulged in a bit of genre gentrification, and it's time for homoeroticism-tinged fantasy to find a new niche. Fortunately, with her new film The Vintner's Luck, Whale Rider director Niki Caro has seen fit to inaugurate what may be the newest fantasy frontier: French dudes having sex with hot, male angels.

Vintner's is Caro's first film since the Charlize Theron harassment drama North Country, and it's a much more romantic work; based on the novel by Elizabeth Knox, it's the story of winemaker Sobran (Jeremie Renier), who's caught in something of a love triangle between his wife (Keisha Castle-Hughes) and a baroness (Vera Farmiga). Who can help him sort out such a complicated scenario? Hmm, I dunno, maybe the hot shirtless angel (Gaspard Ulliel) who visits him once a year and who he eventually falls in love with and bones?

The first trailer, sadly, is pretty light on the implied boning. In fact, it's so resolute in implying that this story is just a heterosexual love triangle that the whole angel bit seems completely random -- and it's not like it isn't completely random, but without the context of "this angel is here so they can have sex, duh" it's a little confusing. Still, we've got faith. In a year where the most prominent image of homosexuality in the media is Brüno's, I think we're all in need of some gay angels.

VERDICT: Sold.