Review: Sideways

Soap and voiceover actor Thomas Haden Church is set to get married in a week, and so he and his wine connoisseur friend Paul Giamatti set off on a tour of Californian wine country, with a little golf for Haden Church thrown in as well. Giamatti (who is a teacher with ambitions of being a writer) has still to get over his two year old divorce, whilst Haden Church is ready to fuck any woman in sight before settling down. Needless to say, this odd couple of best friends with seriously differing personalities are in for a real test of their friendship. Virginia Madsen plays a waitress and wine aficionado whom Giamatti is sweet on, with Haden Church setting his lustful sights on her motorcycle-riding, wine-pourer friend Sandra Oh. Jessica Hecht plays Giamatti’s ex, and M.C. Gainey appears in all of his unfortunate naked glory as an angry husband of one of Haden Church’s conquests.

 

This 2004 adaptation of the novel by Rex Pickett isn’t my favourite Alexander Payne film by a longshot (“About Schmidt”, “Election”, and “Nebraska” are all better). He and co-writer Jim Taylor (“About Schmidt”) have chosen a subject matter that frankly won’t be for everyone, and certainly wasn’t for me. The late Roger Ebert used to judge a film not on what it was about, but how it was about it. I think this film’s subject matter really tests that theory, because I had zero interest in the subject, and I’m not entirely sure I would be into the film all that much no matter how the filmmakers were to approach the subject. I don’t drink alcohol, and I roll my eyes at people who get all snooty about their alcohol, when not being driven to sleep by such snooty people. If you take out the snooty wine-tasting shit, I suppose the characters could hold some interest, but they snooty wine-tasting shit is a lot of what this film is about, and it bored me to tears at times. I mean, at least “Frasier” lampooned a lot of this silly pretentiousness.

 

Let’s start with the good, though. The acting is excellent. Although one wonders how such totally different characters could end up best friends, I suppose it is plausible. Not all friendships are based on personality or common interest, and the performances by Paul Giamatti and Thomas Haden Church are so strong that they should be able to bridge any gap you might have in accepting the relationship. I’m really not sure why Thomas Haden Church never quite happened. I loved “Ned & Stacey” and he’s really good in this as a douchebag wanting to fuck like a rabbit before his impending nuptials. Giamatti, meanwhile is one of cinema’s greatest sad sacks and is pitch-perfect casting here as the writer who still hasn’t gotten over the end of his marriage years ago. Also, as much as one can question her Oscar nomination, there’s no doubt that Virginia Madsen is really good here. It’s shocking that she’s not done much of note since this, her ‘comeback’ role. Her big speech on wine made me want to bash my head against the refrigerator repeatedly, but it was through no fault of Madsen herself. It was just pretentious bullshit. Giamatti and Haden Church, however, are the keys to making this film somewhat bearable, which is strange given they aren’t playing terribly likeable characters. Take away all the pretentious wine bullshit, though, and likeable or not the two lead characters are at least enjoyable to be around for the most part. It’s amazing that playing such an enormous douchebag, Haden Church in particular still has you kinda feeling something positive for him at times. Also, as much as I have bagged the film at a screenwriting/story level (and that may be on the original author, I’ve not read the book), the ending is beautiful and perfect.

 

Still, performances can only carry a film so far if you’re not invested in the subject matter, and with Payne yet again resorting to a road movie narrative, it’s hardly original storytelling either. This just didn’t do it for me, you may disagree. Perhaps it’ll speak to you on a very deep level. The film overall is almost enjoyable, but narratively safe and irritatingly pretentious. I just couldn’t quite get around to embracing this the way I did “About Schmidt”, “Nebraska”, or even “Election”. Better than “The Descendants”, but the subject matter here will really be hit or miss with people I think. For me, the characters in and of themselves were interesting, their alcoholic interests, however were of zero interest to me. Overrated if you ask me, but I don’t drink alcohol so I’m completely wrong for this film, really.

 

Rating: C+