Sideways

Review By: Jennifer Krieger
JenniferKrieger@TheCinemaSource.com

Sideways stars Paul Giamatti and Thomas Hayden Church and both of their stellar performances alone are reason enough to see this movie! The fact that the script is highly nuanced and the scenes masterfully structured is an added bonus. Coupled with the brilliant supporting performances from Virginia Madsen and Sandra Oh, this movie is rendered nothing short of a revelation. A particularly astute friend of mine describes Paul Giamatti as ‘the ultimate scene stealer’ yet with both American Splendor and Sideways he has also proven that he can carry a film. He has perfected the role of the anti-hero; the shlub who is both maddening and endearing. His portrayal of Miles is painfully human, completely recognizable and brutally honest.

Miles is a failed writer and half-hearted English teacher, fueled by both anguish and frustration, every action, every expression and intonation reveals just how close he is to the brink. As a failed television actor relying on commercial voiceovers and the promise of a job with his fiancés father, Hayden Church’s Jack is equally fallible yet blissfully oblivious. And when these two embark on a ‘last-hurrah’ road trip before Jack’s wedding we know it will lead to some delicious trouble and we are all too willing to follow them into it.

There’s a kind of painful voyeuristic quality to watching such emotionally stunted, flawed men portrayed with such realism. There’s something so recognizable and human about each of them that the audience will find it hard to separate themselves, their own lives from the lives onscreen. The film offers little escapism; instead opting for a brutal, hilarious, and often tragic two hours that will leave you humming none-the-less. You will be thinking about this film for days, weeks after you leave the theater, and come Oscar time, when Giamatti, Church and Madsen are all nominated for various awards you will undoubtedly be surprised that your reaction to this movie will have been so universal. The small-scale, personal, almost mundane nature of the film belies its transcendent appeal.

The story is deceptively simple, Jack and Miles embark on said road trip, both with completely different motivations, both equally determined to spend a week schooling the other in what each believes to be his expertise. Miles wants to impart on Jack what he considers to be his expert knowledge of wines and Jack wants to teach Miles how to get laid. The fact that both are failures in their fields, Jack is a lying womanizer with the best of intentions and Miles is a not-so-closeted alcoholic are all revealed as the plot thumps and bumps, picking up waitress Maya (Madsen) and wine-seller Stephanie (Oh) along the way. Jack’s intentions are purer then Miles’ in that he really does want to help Miles get over his painful divorce and the constant stream of rejection letters from his editor; Miles on the other hand just wants to drink himself into oblivion.

Jack and Stephanie immediately commence a passionate affair which inevitably ...