Sideways

Sideways This little film received A LOT of attention earlier this year, and was the favorite to win Best Picture… until this little film called Million Dollar Baby came alongJ Quite a few Christian outlets thought that the film, though well made and acted and all, was hopeless, depressing, and not worth seeing.

Personally, I went to see it thinking it would be a pointless film about wine and mid life crises… boy… I was wrong. This is a film for our times…

I really liked it. It was funny, in a sad sort of way a lot of the time, and it was very well acted and produced.

The thing that impressed me most though, was that it is basically a film about searching for meaning.

The main character (Miles, played WONDERFULLY by Paul Giamatti) can’t cope with himself, drinks wine because, yes, he has loved and enjoyed wine for years, but really so that he can forget about his failed marriage, failed character, failed life. He wants to be a writer, but writes LONG strange books about weird topics. No publishers seem to be interested. He is an English teacher now, and his marriage has failed. 2 years ago. He is still getting over it. He takes money from his mothers sock drawer at one point, feels ashamed but still does it. He keeps to himself. At one point, he has a wonderful monologue about pinot noir grapes that is basically describing himself. The grapes he says are thin skinned, to much hardship and they don’t turn out properly. He says that when cultivated carefully they have a wonderful taste. He doesn’t want to let anyone into his life, he has been burned already.

The other main character (Jack, Oscar nominee Thomas Haden Church) is a former TV star. He is now down on his luck, basically working as a voice over announcer, doing a lot of the speed reading at the end of commercials. He parleys his fame to basically live a hedonistic lifestyle. The film is about the trip he and Miles take before Jack’s wedding (to a very pretty, wealthy young woman), kind of a bachelor week, where they will sample wine, eat food and talk. But this character doesn’t want just that. He wants to have sex with anyone and everyone he can before getting married. He thinks pleasure and money are the answers to everything, and to existence.

In the course of the movie they each meet a girl. The first is a nice waitress named Maya, formerly married to a professor, and a wine connoseaur (played by Oscar nominee Virginia Madsen). She is interested in Paul Giamatti’s character. And has a superbly given answer to Miles comments on Pinot Noir grapes, recognizing that Miles was talking about himself.

The other is a winery employee named Stephanie, (played by the directors wife, Sandra Oh) who falls for Thomas Haden Church’s character, and obliges him. She believes he is genuinely interested in her and her young daughter, and Miles seems to be so. She gives a great performance, and her response to finding out about Jack’s impending marriage (which Miles accidentally tells Maya is happening) is a perfect picture of what women go through in any kind of breakup.

In the course of the movie both relationships fall apart. Jack, in a poigniant moment (which was used as his Oscar clip) comes to realize that he really does love and need his fiancée, and would not forgive himself if he lost her. Miles realizes that he has to move on and that he needs to open up, and allow people in, live life. Both realize that there is more to life than fame and wine, and that real success isn’t necessarily having a lot of money, but is in the relationships one has.

Here, the film is mostly on target. Life is more than wine, fame, money, sex, whatever. What it fails to do is to really follow the logic. It ends with both characters essentially figuring out that being in love will bring fulfillment. However, that is not entirely the case. Even that will fade (as Miles character should know). Instead, real life is in finding your purpose, which would be found in finding God.

However, Sideways is really a neat little film. Not for all, it has some definite sensual scenes, and quite a bit of language, but it is a gem. It is gorgeous to look at, filmed mostly in beautiful northern CA, and the acting is SUPERB.

All in all a smart funny, probing, interesting little film for those who like that sort of thingJ And you will get to know quite a bit about wine and wine tasting on the way!

Roger Ebert’s Review, which is excellent by the way.