Sideways [M]

It’s the week before his best friend, Jack’s, wedding and middle-aged, divorced, depressed, and failing novelist Miles decides to treat him to a week-long tour around California’s wine country. Along the way, he plucks up the courage to approach Maya, a local waitress he’s admired from afar, whilst Jack seduces and then sparks a relationship with her best friend Stephanie. But the trip soon takes a turn for the worst when the boys’ deceptive ways are uncovered. 

Who would have thought that a film about wine could be so poignant and beautiful? Alexander Payne’s adaptation of Rex Pickett’s novel is a true undervalued gem in cinema, made wondrous by its superb screenplay and brilliant performances. This is a seriously lovely movie! 

It’s the week before his best friend, Jack’s, wedding and middle-aged, divorced, depressed, and failing novelist Miles decides to treat him to a week-long tour around California’s wine country. Along the way, he plucks up the courage to approach Maya, a local waitress he’s admired from afar, whilst Jack seduces and then sparks a relationship with her best friend Stephanie. But the trip soon takes a turn for the worst when the boys’ deceptive ways are uncovered. 

Let’s first talk about the script, because that really is the star of the show. Without a doubt! Winning Payne and Jim Taylor the Academy Award, the screenplay for this movie is nothing short of genius. Wine as the central metaphor for life proves to be a most poignant and poetic technique that really brings this great level of depth to the entire piece and what’s particularly breathtaking about it is the fact that it’s a metaphor that is depicted as both beautiful and destructive. Each chapter of the film opens with a black screen and white writing naming the day against the soundtracks of heavy stirring as the central character awakes with a hangover. 

Whilst wine depicts Miles as being very cultured and a connoisseur of sorts, it also is right by his side when he’s depicted in his worst states: depressed, fragile, jealous, and vengeful. During one of the film’s most intimate and beautiful scenes, wine is spoken about in such as way that is poetic and almost philosophical, as the character of Maya talks about what attracts her to wine (and by extension, Miles). I cannot stress how absolutely beautiful this screenplay is! 

Absolutely everyone in the film delivers stunning performances, but I do have to give a special applause to Paul Giamatti. Paul’s a bit of a chameleon when it comes to acting: he blends in with any character that he’s given. He can be the frightening, dickhead of authority in Big Fat Liar or the comic salesperson in Planet of the Apes: it doesn’t matter what he does, he’s always at home. Here, he’s a bitter and self-defecating person who, it seems, is slowly sinking into the failure that is his life. Paul’s performance is absolutely beautiful as, on some level you don’t like him, but on another level you really can’t help but feel for him and desire a little bit of hope for him. 

Starring Virginia Madsen, Sandra Oh, Marylouise Burke, Jessica Hecht, Missy Doty, M. C. Gainev, Alysia Reiner, Shake Tukhmanyan, Shaun Duke, Robert Covarrubias, Patrick Gallagher, Stephanie Faracy, Joe Marinelli, and Thomas Haden Church, Sideways is a beautifully written film filled with drama, friendship, romance, comedy, and hope. Whilst it seems that, on the surface, everything about this movie is subtle and maybe even boring, underneath there is this great wealth of richness and beauty.