Sideways (2004)

Director:

Alexander Payne

Writers (WGA):

Rex Pickett (novel)
Alexander Payne (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

21 January 2005 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

Tagline:

In search of wine. In search of women. In search of themselves.

Plot:

Two men reaching middle age with not much to show but disappointment, embark on a week long road trip through California's wine country, just as one is about to take a trip down the aisle.

Plot Keywords:

Wine | Actor | California | Writer | Waitress

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 94 wins & 34 nominations

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Paul Giamatti	...	Miles
Thomas Haden Church	...	Jack
Virginia Madsen	...	Maya
Sandra Oh	...	Stephanie
Marylouise Burke	...	Miles's Mother
Jessica Hecht	...	Victoria
Missy Doty	...	Cammi
M.C. Gainey	...	Cammi's Husband
Alysia Reiner	...	Christine Erganian
Shake Tukhmanyan	...	Mrs. Erganian (as Shaké Toukhmanian)
Shaun Duke	...	Mike Erganian (as Duke Moosekian)
Robert Covarrubias	...	Miles's Building Manager
Patrick Gallagher	...	Gary the Bartender
Stephanie Faracy	...	Stephanie's Mother
Joe Marinelli	...	Frass Canyon Pourer

Also Known As:

MPAA:

Rated R for language, some strong sexual content and nudity.

Runtime:

126 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Armenian

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | DTS

Certification:

Taiwan:R-18 | Portugal:M/12 | Iceland:12 (video rating) | Iceland:14 (original rating) | Hungary:16 | Malaysia:18SX (DVD) | Malaysia:(Banned) (theatrical) | Japan:R-15 | Sweden:Btl | New Zealand:M | Argentina:13 | Australia:MA (original rating) | Australia:M (re-rating on appeal) | Brazil:16 | Canada:13+ (Québec) | Canada:18A (Alberta/British Columbia/Ontario) | Chile:TE | Czech Republic:12 | Finland:K-15 | Germany:6 | Hong Kong:III | Mexico:B15 | Netherlands:12 | Peru:PT | Philippines:R-18 | Singapore:M18 | South Korea:18 | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | Switzerland:14 (canton of Zurich) | UK:15 | USA:R | Norway:11 | Canada:AA (original rating) | Ireland:15 | Indonesia:Dewasa

Filming Locations:

Buellton, California, USA

Company:

Fox Searchlight Pictures

Trivia:

A slapstick scene involving Miles hitting a dog with his car while driving around was cut because it didn't fit the overall mood of the movie and didn't follow animal regulations that Hollywood had on using animals in movies.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Miles pours the wine from the spit bucket at the tasting room over his head it drenches his shirt and pants. In the subsequent scenes, the wine stains have dried, but the clothes have actually been changed. There are stains on the shirt, but there are not enough to match the original incident and the pants have no stains at all.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Miles Raymond:Fuck.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Fuck (2005)

Soundtrack:

UMBRELLA INDOORS

Excellent expose of narcissism on two sides of the same coin

A woman's take on this is probably not the same as a man's. Initially I was put off by Charles Hayden's Church's character crudeness and Giamatti's character's repulsiveness but that changed was I was able to look below the surface. By the end of the movie, I felt very sorry for Church as he was not only dumb and shallow, he was actually so empty that whatever female was before him became a mirror of his need to connect with anything that felt like caring. Church did a fabulous job and was incredibly believable as a has-been wannabe, desperate to hold on to his dream of the kind of good life that is bought by charm and good looks. He is just on the edge or realizing his time is running out and that is a whole lot for this character to absorb as he has never given much to the concept of "thought."

Giammeti is a pitiful, self-absorbed, destructive, depressed alcoholic whose in possession of two "things." He knows a great deal about wine and he has written a book. Nothing else informs him. Yet his performance is so nuanced that we are able to fill in his depth of character and decency primarily through his huge, limpid eyes. What a performance. He should have been nominated for an academy award. This is a role that comes along once-in-a-lifetime for this type of character actor, like Liza in Cabaret.

The women are really nothing more than backdrops or props for the men to expose themselves. Madsen is lovely but you do wonder what on earth she really sees in this man. While he may be redeemable, he is really pretty much a self-absorbed jerk. It is most interesting that this film has been released at the same time as Closer, as they are similar in their exploration of self-absorption. Though Closer explores how destructive its characters are to each other, in the end, Closer is not as intimate and seems more artificial than the sweetly revealing Sideways.