Champagne Problems Parents Guide

Champagne Problems crated a TV-14 rating primarily because of mild adult content and some language, even though the film is otherwise gentle and lighthearted.

Once the guiding hand behind Daredevil and Ghost Rider, Mark Steven Johnson seems to have wandered into an entirely different cinematic neighborhood in recent years. These days he’s crafting romantic comedies designed for the streaming era films that feel like they could play on Hallmark any night of December, polished and pleasant and mostly undemanding. He’s dealing in soft-focus conflict and low-stakes emotional turbulence, stories where attractive people glide through scripts that don’t always insist on genuine feeling. It’s comfort food filmmaking, vanilla by design. And yet, with Champagne Problems, Johnson manages to uncork a small amount of charm, leaning into the fairy-tale glow of a holiday trip to France as a woman’s carefully structured life begins to wobble under the weight of unexpected connection. Johnson, who also wrote the film, isn’t chasing originality far from it but he does benefit from a cast who supply just enough warmth and wryness to keep the whole soufflé from collapsing.

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Sydney (Minka Kelly), a diligent employee at The Roth Group, spends her days navigating corporate acquisitions and sparring with her competitive colleague Ryan (Xavier Samuel). She’s the kind of worker whose competence turns heads, and her boss rewards her by sending her to Paris to help close a deal with Chateau Cassell, a storied champagne house preparing to sell. It’s a quick trip just a few days but her sister (Maeve Courtier-Lilley) urges her not to treat it as an airport-to-boardroom sprint. “Let a little French magic in,” she nudges. And Sydney, perhaps surprising even herself, tries. She wanders into a bookstore, the kind you might stumble into on a quiet Paris afternoon, and meets Henri (Tom Wozniczka), a man who seems disarmingly willing to reveal hidden corners of the city to an American who looks like she hasn’t breathed in weeks. One flirtation leads to another, and soon the two are deep in conversation, swapping stories of their late mothers over steaming cups of hot wine, the night unfolding with a gentle inevitability that finally tips into passion.

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But romance in Johnson’s universe always comes with fine print. After their luminous night together, Sydney returns to her real purpose convincing Chateau Cassell’s owner, Hugo (Thibault De Montalembert), to accept The Roth Group’s bid, despite the circling competitors: the sociable Roberto (Sean Amsing), the ever-serious Brigitte (Astrid Whettnall), and Otto (Flula Borg), whose nervous energy masks a catalog of grim childhood memories. Sydney arrives ready to charm Hugo, to prove her professionalism… only to have the ground pulled out from beneath her when she learns that Henri her bookstore spark, her hot-wine confidant is Hugo’s son. And he has no affection for corporate buyers. To him, Sydney is the enemy.

One of the film’s small strengths is that Sydney isn’t sketched as a soulless corporate shark. She’s ambitious, certainly, and eager to prove herself, but she’s also empathetic, still processing her mother’s unfulfilled dreams and carrying those ghosts into her work. Kelly brings a soft luminance to the role; you can feel her trying to balance competence with vulnerability, projecting a quiet emotional intelligence that buoys the film. Johnson builds the story’s initial spark around Sydney and Henri’s meet-cute in that cozy Paris bookshop an encounter that really does feel like the stuff of holiday wish-fulfillment and he lets their early chemistry breathe before jolting Sydney back into the realities of negotiations, vineyards, and high-pressure dealmaking.

The supporting ensemble keeps the film from floating away on its own sugar. Roberto radiates an easy, party-ready warmth, the type of character who’d buy a round for strangers just to hear their stories. Brigitte, driven and poised, tries to leverage her rapport with Hugo into a winning bid. Otto, the twitchy German representative, becomes an unlikely comedic standout Flula Borg clearly enjoying the chance to tell the group unsettling tales from his youth, including a spirited recounting of the Krampus legend that steals the scene. The film’s conflicts mostly swirl around Sydney and Henri’s ruptured trust, culminating in the inevitable presentation showdown, where each buyer must pitch their grand vision for the chateau. Johnson keeps the hijinks mild; the closest the film comes to slapstick is Brigitte pushing a cheese-laden meal on a lactose-intolerant Sydney. The vineyard competitions pruning vines, mastering the delicate art of riddling prove more engaging, and there’s even a friendly debate over Die Hard that tries to sprinkle in a bit of holiday pop culture flair.

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At its heart, Champagne Problems wants to sell a romance, and Kelly and Wozniczka make a reasonably convincing case. Their chemistry isn’t electric, but it’s tender, grounded by glances and hesitations rather than sweeping melodrama. Johnson also threads in a subtle father-son strain between Henri and Hugo, offering the story a touch more emotional texture. The film leans into its seasonal backdrop, letting its characters wander through Christmas markets and enjoy the sort of festive pastries that seem to exist solely to be photographed. It’s hard not to appreciate the sensory ease of it all the glow, the coziness, the gentle hum of holiday sentiment.

Still, Johnson ultimately can’t resist retreating to the safest possible beats. For all its appealing moments in the first two acts, Champagne Problems closes with the same prefab, plastic-fantasy moves you’ve seen dozens of times before. Instead of trusting the modest intimacy and genuine humor he’s built, Johnson opts for the template. The result is a film that begins with promise softly lit, gently played but drifts back into the well-worn grooves of seasonal streaming romance.

Overall Reason for Rating:
The TV-14 designation stems mostly from language a handful of moderate profanities and a few irreverent uses of deity. Nothing is especially harsh, but it’s enough to nudge the film out of all-ages territory.

Violence: None at all. No fights, no peril nothing that would trouble younger viewers.

Sexual Content: The film keeps things soft and discreet. An adult couple shares a kiss, and later they’re shown waking up together in bed, but there’s no nudity or graphic intimacy. A character makes a quick joke about someone having an OnlyFans page, but it’s throwaway humor rather than salacious detail.

Language: Expect a small handful of mild to moderate profanities, plus three deity-related expressions. There are also a few mild French expletives sprinkled in.

Alcohol / Drug Use: Because the plot centers on a champagne house, drinking is part of the scenery. Adults sip wine or champagne in several scenes, and one-character jokes about drinking all day. Still, no one is portrayed as drunk or impaired.