Review: "Sideways"

Sideways
Starring Paul Giamatti, Thomas Haden Church, Virginia Madsen, Sandra Oh
Written by Alexander Payne & Jim Taylor
Directed by Alexander Payne

4 stars (out of 4)

“I’m a fingerprint on the window of a skyscraper,” Miles (Paul Giamatti) says to Jack (Thomas Haden Church) at one his many low moments throughout Alexander Payne’s touching and hilarious new film, Sideways. Based on the novel by Rex Pickett, optioned even before its literary debut, Sideways manages to convey a sense of hope about life without turning self-delusional or falsely sentimental.

Miles is constantly depressed about his abilities as a writer and his inability to turn pro and quit teaching middle school English, is on several different prescriptions, and still bleeding from his recent divorce. But his wedding present to Jack, a week-long trip through wine country, lets Miles’ inner pedantic oenophile shine through, and Jack is loyal enough to let him. Jack has his own plans: get laid one last time before marriage. Charming.

Out in Buellton, Ca., they meet Maya (Virginia Madsen), a waitress Miles knows and desires from (of course) afar, and Stephanie (Sandra Oh), a lustful wine store worker who immediately begins a passionate relationship with Jack. The film charts the inevitable implosion of Jack and Stephanie’s tryst, its impact on Miles and Maya’s fledgling romance, and whether Miles will actually begin to live.
Payne brings the broad yet acutely defined sense of humor that made Election and About Schmidt so memorable, but Miles isn’t just a character to watch or study; we want him to be okay because we know him, we are him, every one of us. He’s still reeling from the pain of a two-year-old divorce, fanatic about wine but subject to its dark effects, too sheepish to ask his mother for money so he steals it from her sock drawer: these aren’t the suave traits of a smooth operator, but the all-too-real sins to which we all fall prey.

It’s a familiar tale, at its heart: two friends, one sad and full of self-doubt, the other cocky and playful. The loyal sidekick makes us laugh, but he’s static, immutable: he might see the error of his ways, but it’s not enough to make him change. Our hero, though, our sad and broken wanderer, is the one who’s going to actually move through the story arc, progressing from pain to exhaustion to exploration to confidence to redemption. See Swingers, The Shawshank Redemption, Good Will Hunting, and countless others for more evidence and different takes on the same story. It all starts with a challenge and ends with a chance. It doesn’t even matter if the chance bears favorably out; it was still a chance taken.

A longtime character actor finally having his well deserved day in the sun, Giamatti shines brighter here than he did in American Splendor (2003); his wounded and complex Miles deserves Oscar recognition. Thomas Haden Church comes seemingly out of nowhere to deliver a fascinating and enjoyable turn as the annoying but faithful friend that Miles stumbles across in the dorm.

Sideways is a breath of fresh air (or a draught of a classic pinot, if that does you better) in a long, hard year with almost no memorable films to show for it. The fall and winter look bleak; even films from old school heavyweights like Martin Scorsese and Oliver Stone look to be nothing more than bloated epics far inferior to the stories they were telling at their peaks. Additionally, most movies are marketed to teens or families (like Disney’s touting National Treasure as “edgier family fare”). No one seems to want to make smart movies anymore. Films like Sideways, about realistic, enjoyable, screwed-up, irritating, flawed and yearning men and women are being drowned out by pirate movies.

The smartest, funniest comedy of the year, Sideways is a welcome standout in an era of bland entertainment and a welcome reminder that grownups like movies, too.