Review

Review Date: 7-November-04
Spoiler Rating: Medium
Juju Judgment: Just OK

Sideways (2004)

I have a low tolerance for assholes. Oh, I know they come in many forms --- the surly bastard, the lowdown snake, the U.S. president --- and I know some are considered strangely lovable, like the feckless cad or Donald Trump. But I can't accept that people indulge them daily and find them amusing instead of insufferable. Must we lower our standards as honor and courtesy disappear from human society? Do we admire dickheads for getting away with things we secretly wish we could do? I don't get it, and I don't want to. And this is why I have an ambivalent response to "Sideways."

The star of the show is a depressed would-be writer named Miles (Paul Giamatti), but the action is driven by Miles' old college pal Jack (Thomas Haden Church), a randy he-child with a barely successful career as an actor. The week before Jack's wedding, the two men head north to Napa Valley for what was planned as a wine-tasting, golf-playing bachelor send-off. (Miles is a connoisseur, and occasional abuser, of the grape whose own marriage turned sour two years before.) Once there, however, Jack reveals that his true intention for his last days of freedom is to get laid as much as possible, and his consequent shenanigans embroil the pair in unexpected adventures.

Above all, "Sideways" is a comedy, and I'll grant that Jack's crassness has its funny moments (like when he actualizes Miles' rage on the golf course). Yet all things considered, it's difficult fully to believe in him and his interaction with other people; maybe Church just lacks the charisma to portray him as convincingly irresistible. How is it that neither the sexy pourer he picks up on the first night (Sandra Oh) nor the more pensive waitress attracted to Miles (Virginia Madsen) recognizes his laddishness right off the bat? (And what can his fiancée and future in-laws possibly be thinking?) More importantly, how come Miles continues to put up with his vulgar selfishness after full-on twenty years?

The script (by director Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor) offers an answer to this latter question in Miles' experiences during the week, particularly his budding relationship with Madsen's character. Conventional wisdom on cases like Miles' (lonely, withdrawn, awash in feelings of worthlessness and irrelevance) is that the sick party needs prodding by someone who takes things a lot less seriously and is able to see the glass half full. No doubt this is true, but the idea that such an inveterate boor as Jack could motivate anyone to anything good is hard to swallow. The prevailing source of interest in Miles' situation, therefore, comes not from his supposedly beneficial friendship with Jack (which, with a bit of tweaking, could have had a more palatable odd-couple flavor), but from the natural grace of Giamatti's noble-loser persona. Although he's down in the dumps throughout the movie, Giamatti imbues Miles with brief touches of humor and charm that lend credence to a happier past and give hope for a happier future. The guy definitely needs saving; too bad he has to go through such questionable side ways to get it.

Copyright © 2004 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.