starring Paul Giamatti & Thomas Haden Church
In a nutshell: HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Content: Sideways is an excellent movie. This is probably the 3rd or 4th time that I have seen it. My favorite parts are the setting and characters. Giamatti is absolutely brilliant and Church is a lot of fun. I haven't seen Church in anything else, so I am really not sure whether it is his acting or the casting that is perfect, but it's one or the other. Can't complain about the girls either.
I love the scenery and the setting as well. I don't recall having seen any other movies that take place in wine country, California, and it really provides a unique feel to the movie. I give this movie partial credit for getting me to start drinking wine.
The movie is all about Miles (Giamatti). His character is so well-developed that I might place him among my favorite characters of recent years. The relationship between him and Jack (Church) is a complicated one. The first time I watched Sideways, I distinctly remember wondering how in the world two people so completely different could be friends with each other and where they possibly could have met. Luckily, Payne reads isn't going to let such an obvious plot point go unexplained: they were freshman year college roommates. This is a perfect explanation based on my own experience with being paired with someone very different than myself, but getting along with him. I also like how Payne is very patient with this piece of information, letting me wonder for the first 75% of the movie before telling me. Then, he slyly slips it into a key confrontation between Miles and Maya (Virginia Madsen). This is just an example of the care the Payne takes with his story details and characters. He remains consistantly good at this throughout Sideways. Payne seems to be very gifted at letting his characters develop through their actions and conversations, rather than simply telling us about them.
The only other Payne movie that I have seen is Election which many people consider to be a classic piece of satire. I can't say that I share that opinion, and I found Sideways to be much more enjoyable. Maybe someday I will watch his other movie, About Schmidt, but I really don't want to see Kathy Bates naked.
Back to Sideways...It is interesting that all of the events that move the story forward revolve around Jack, but the story really isn't about him. I really didn't care what was on Jack's mind because he seems to change it every other scene. Instead, I found myself in Miles' shoes, having to deal with a best friend that is so inconsiderate and indecisive and seemingly unsympathetic to Miles' problems which are at least as big as his own.
In addition to the focus on character, Payne has inserted just enough comedy to keep us smiling most of the way through the movie. It is used carefully and in enough moderation for it to be very effective when it pops up. Payne weaves it into a human drama masterfully without compromising the impact of the story.
Rolling Rankings:
1. Sideways (#1)
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