DVD Review: Sideways, Upside Down, and All Around
The movie, Sideways, takes us along a trip to wine tasting country, on the coast of California, with two good buddies. Actually, its a last stab at single freedom for one man and a chance for another to indulge in his passion for wine.
It becomes abundantly clear that the the two friends, Miles(Paul Giamatti), an eight grade school teacher, and Jack(Thomas Haden Church), a used up actor, could be no more different.
Their first stop is the Sanford Winery. This where Miles really begins teaching Jack about the beauty of wine, especially about his favorite, Pinot Noir- “It’s a very thin skinned grape. It’s very delicate.” Jack is confounded at the subtlety of Miles’ palate as he rattles off a whole cavalcade of dark fruits, asparagus, and yes, cheese.
Miles is equally confounded by the barbarism of his friend when he catches Jack with chewing gum in his mouth while wine tasting. Wine and the love of its finer qualities is predominant in this movie. But wine is simply a cover for the real theme of Sideways, love and women.
Notably, their approach to women are just as different as their sensibilities. Miles is a wounded bird. He’s been divorced for two years and is very tender about the dating scene. Jack is the brute. He devours women, women of every variety. His sole mission on this trip is to get laid and get his morose friend laid. Miles proves himself to be a very difficult object to reform. He needs just the right conditions to flourish or he fades into the “dark side.”
The disparate sides of each character appear to merge during a double date. Here we find Miles paired up with Maya, the beautiful divorcee. They seem like an immediate match. All of their tastes and interests are in union.
Yet Miles still lingers on about his past marriage and decides to call his lost love in a drunk stupor. Jack prefers the oblivious approach. He is to be wed in just a few days. Yet he is working on the first of his hapless victims and thinks he is falling in love after their first affair.
The friendship between the two scoundrels doesn’t seem right. But they need each other. Jack’s impertinence is just the right antidote for Miles’ pained approached to dating. Mile’s refinement and delicacy is a necessary balance to Jack’s bluntness.
It is this contrast that makes the movie as funny as it is. In a touching restaraunt scene, Jack, looking tired and irritated, refers to their both getting laid as “something we should share.” Jack’s idea of healing the soul is having recreational sex.
The movie develops like a wine itself; the characters have layers that need to peeled away. Miles is the refined wine lover, not a snob, but he is not quite a gentleman either. His book writing ambitions and attempts at romance have withered away and he is finding failure a difficult proposition, an excuse to drink.
Jack is crude and short sighted, but he is extremely loyal and concerned for the well being of Miles; he does car commercials now. His oblivion to failure is his strength, as long as he is getting some. But they are both liars and pay for it dearly in a very funny scene involving fat sex and a covert operation to recover a lost wallet.
The movie succeeds in showing the follies of promiscuous sex. It is a complex package of lies, deceit, scheming, and the ultimate downfall of human nature. It causes ruin for both the men and the women, like wine for the unschooled – all of the intoxication, none of the subtlety. Jack regrets wholly his actions because he cosummates twice with strange women. Miles is spared because he hasn’t wholly deceived his partner.
Jack concedes to marriage at the end, and Miles confronts his past with his last wife and his future with a gracious woman . They both remain imperfect, Jack with a bandaged broken nose and Miles with a broken relationship. It’s the movie’s most sobering moment, but, love, like any good wine, takes time to open up.
