Sideways (USA) (20th Century Fox) (2004) ***1/2Year: 2004iMDB
Director: Alexander Payne Cast: Paul Giamatti, Thomas Haden Church, Virginia Madsen, Sandra Oh
Two ex-college buddies approaching middle-age, go on a wine-tasting trip right before one of them is getting married. Miles (Giamatti) is a failed writer, divorced after a failed marriage who only seems to excell at wine-tasting, an activity where his snobbish attitude seems to be a sign of expertise. His friend Jack (Church) does not see this trip as much as a cultural, wine-tasting experience and a time to spend with his friend, but rather as a last spring-break type adventure before he settles down, quite reluctantly, as a married man.
What follows is a mix between a frat-college type fun movie (think Old School) and a serious introspection into what do people expect from life all under a blanket of metaphors related to wine tasting. The entire set of wine parables can be viewed as profound by those inclined towards a more serious perspective, as ridiculously funny by most people or even as pretentious talk by others. All in all, Alexander Payne managed to create, as director and screenwriter, adapting a novel by Rex Picket, a movie that is reminiscent of the best Woody Allen creations.
To my surprise Sideways has also become perhaps the most hyped movie of the year, winning a plethora of critic awards showing that he pseudo-sophisticated, smart yet down-to-earth style is something that a large segment of movie-goers has been missing in the past years. Sideways may give the feel that it tries too hard at some points in a story that is otherwise quite linear, but it manages to fill the empty gap in the movie genre spectrum.
Posted by TheCasualCritic on January 9, 2005 12:25 AM | TrackBack