Best Picture 2005 Reviews #2: Sideways
So, after a week filled with failed attempts to see another film, I finally was able to slip away yesterday afternoon with a friend and see
Sideways, in which Paul Giamatti and Thomas Haden Church play buddies with distinctly different ideas of how to spend a week in Santa Barbara wine country before one of them gets married the following weekend. Church, playing Jack, the prospective groom, wants spend his last week of freedom getting laid; Giamatti, playing Miles, the best man, wants only to indulge in some single-vineyard reserve pinot noir. In pursuit of Jack's goal, they meet up with Virginia Madsen as a wine aficionado waitress and Sandra Oh as a tasting room employee.
Last year,
Lost in Translation was nominated for Best Picture, and undoubtedly
Sideways fills the same niche in the minds of the voters, namely the high-concept comedy filled with character development and symbolism. I didn't enjoy
Lost in Translation nearly as much as everyone else, not least because I couldn't get into the characters, who were having a miserable time in Tokyo.
Sideways fixes that. Neither Miles nor Jack (especially Jack!) is really worth liking, but they seemed like real people, not caricatures. They have messy bedrooms, poor judgment, and temperaments that clash. Miles even manages to grow and change over the course of the film. It should be noted, though, that I'm a California-based wine aficionado myself, and so I could see more of myself in Miles than most people probably can.
I thought the direction was downright good, evocative of both the sudden jolt of a knock waking one up from a hangover and, on the other extreme, long lazy days spent driving through vineyards along the California coast. And I thought the screenplay was good, too. Not astounding (I'd have to give that honor to
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), and honestly, not as good as
Lost in Translation's, but it did what it was supposed to do, and I certainly didn't think I was being led around by the nose.
All in all, I thought this was a cut above
Finding Neverland, for sure.
Acting: Competent-to-good
Direction: Downright good
Screenplay: Good
Overall: I would have gladly paid full price for this one.
