Sideways
While not quite the inspirational masterpiece that was Election, this is another solid, extremely well-written character piece and buddy comedy from Alexander Payne. The film starts slow, showing Giamatti’s Miles Raymond slowly making his way to pick up his soon-to-be-married friend, and then as soon as he and Church’s Jack are off in the car, their dialogue seems instantly familiar to anyone who has ever had a best friend that they trust. The pacing comes and goes as the movie goes on, and finally settles down when our two heroes meet a couple of chicks that could be interested in them. Ironically the biggest drawback of the film is probably Giamatti himself, or at least the way the character is written and directed. Constantly whining and feeling sorry for himself, then coming off like an unlikable snob when describing his passion for wine, Miles loses points with the viewer very early on when we see him stealing several hundred dollars from his mother (and on her birthday no less) in order to pay for his road trip. As the film goes on and develops into the director’s (and Jack’s) ambition to give Miles meaning in his life and have some fun, quite frankly I found myself caring less what happened to him, especially after he makes a personal decision that severely messes up Jack’s personal life, and I wondered if this viewer indifference perhaps cost Giamatti a Best Actor Oscar Nomination. However, I can’t say the same for Thomas Haden Church. His Jack is full of life and full of fun, and makes the film enjoyable whenever he’s onscreen, whether it’s being attracted to every girl that walks past or berating his friend for being a pussy, Church fills the screen with lovable good cheer, so that when he faces HIS moral dilemma, we actually hope for the best for him. As for the female leads, Madsen makes a nice comeback as the wine-loving waitress who is attracted to Miles (causing him to run to the bathroom haha), and Payne really does a commendable job of making Sandra Oh actually seem sexy(?) as the winery manager the guys hang out with. As with his previous film About Schmidt, Payne exhibits a real eye for the mundane middle-class lifestyle, especially thru his camerawork and locations. This acts as a blessing and a curse: it establishes a trademark style for him, yet there’s only limited entertainment value in seeing these people in places many of us are familiar with. The laughs come and go as well, but a bit involving a waitress in the last act of the film makes for some high hilarity (even if we didn’t really need to see M.C. Gainey’s junk all over the place), but in the end, we get a film that could’ve been a grand masterpiece if we had a little more empathy for its lead character…
8/10