Talk about "Sideways" here:
Review by: Frank Willett
Plot Summary
Miles Raymond (Paul Giamatti), a middle aged unpublished writer and English school teacher, is looking forward to escaping and spending some quiet time sharing the pleasures of wine tasting at
California's wine vineyards with his friend Jack (Thomas Haden Church), an about-to-be-married middle aged somewhat known actor. Jack, however, is simply looking forward to one last week of getting laid before getting married. Offering his opinion for the wedding cake with the words, "I prefer the dark"; Miles finds himself pulled into Jack's dark expressions of pre-wedding jitters of sexual escapades interlaced with self and mutual deceit. Complicating matters further, Miles finds himself developing a relationship with Maya (Virginia Madsen), a local waitress putting her life back on track with a master's degree in horticulture after a divorce and, like Miles, a closet wine connoisseur.
Review
This 2004 film is one of those comedies that will makes you chuckle and sometimes laugh out loud as you are drawn in to the dismal love/hate relationship of the main two characters. The movie coaxes you down into its dark whirlpool of their reality, subtly beckoning you with bits of character familiarity. At the point of no return, when the movie has you trapped and you and the two main characters have both lost control, it begins a slow agonizing death roll of your spirit while still thwarting your defenses with humor. But, before all is utterly lost, you are freed and returned to the world that you and the characters both knew before the cultured trip through the California wine country. You can almost hear the solid click of the just closed reinforced hotel room door that distinctly separates the room darkness of the week long adventure gone awry from the bright light of the outside world's normality.
Conclusion
This movie is a dark comedy that will resonate with many people. The dialogue is witty yet stark, the characters are very real in a sad sort of way, and the progression of the story is humbly believable. If not for the quaint ending full of hope, this movie would have, perhaps, resulted in many movie goers using their favorite "saved" bottle of wine to chase away the story's depressive after taste.
This movie is rated R for language and strong sexual content, as well as, nudity.
