The story for Sideways, though concentrating itself within an entirely different time period and character actions, vaguely resembles the philosophical critiques described by Voltaire in his novel, Candide, minus the social commentaries, though argument could be made for that as well. On the one hand you have Miles, a two-year divorcée who always seems to have an adverse view of the world, even when it feels as if he may finally be receiving that little break for once. Despite the opportunity to be with a woman presenting itself to him, it feels as if he can not bare to expose himself to another woman out fear of rejection and the universe punching him in the stomach one more time. On the opposite end of the spectrum is Jack, Miles' old college roommate and best friend, who happens to be on his way to becoming a married man for the first time. With almost the exact opposite philosophy as his melancholy friend, Jack is always searching for a good time and views nearly every situation with a positive spin to it, even if, logically, there should be none. If life happens to throw him a curveball, thus knocking him down off his high horse, he simply picks himself off the ground, dusts the dirt off his pants, and then hightails it after the next short skirt that comes waltzing by his line of sight. What Sideways demonstrates, the novel Candide as well, is that as human beings we need not apply to either one of these extremist theories on how we should view the world but rather we should instead discover a compromise in between in which we continue life being happy and content with what we have.
Paul Giamatti, having been backhanded by the Motion Picture Academy once again, performs brilliantly in the role of Miles Raymond, a man who goes out to wine country to give his best friend his last hoorah and ends up finding himself in the process. As with Jack, certain audience members may find Miles to be a bit too pessimistic and cynical of his view of the world to find him all that likable. But what needs to be remembered is that this is the nature of Miles' character and as the story digs deeper into his personal failures and dead-end streets in his life, the more understanding we become of his current philosophy in life. There is this immensely romantic sequence within the film in which Maya discusses the feeling she has or the thoughts she develops in her mind whenever she drinks a bottle of wine. As she delivers this exceptionally beautiful piece of dialogue, Miles appears nothing short of captivated by her words, feeling as if she has already grasped who he is inside. And then comes the precise moment in that scene where you will want to grab Miles by the shoulders, slap his face around a bit, and shout, "Kiss her you moron" only to no avail. Jack, played hilariously by Thomas Haden Church, is without a doubt one of the most unlikable characters you will come across. He is loud, crude, embarrassingly sexually promiscuous, and arrogant beyond all pretension. But those rather coarse traits aside, he does happen to have his moment in which, once you are able to get past the excessive profanity and sexual innuendos, he speaks quite profoundly on certain subjects as when he attempts to have Miles lighten for once in his life after he finds out his wife has remarried. Virginia Madsen, in the role of Maya, is nothing short of breathtakingly eloquent and beautiful in this film, performing admirably opposite Paul Giammati and never once playing off dialogue as clichéd as it would sound coming from anyone else with less experience then she has.
Overall, no matter how young or old you happen to be, whether you are male or female, you will be able walk away from Sideways with a new view on life, on how we need not be overtly optimistic or pessimistic but instead be content with what life gives us and work with it while we still have time. For those moviegoers who have yet to even approach what one would call the 'prime age-range' for a midlife crisis, the film's underlying themes on the 'crossroads' in our lives and how we should view the world are still particularly poignant and divulge valuable lessons that can easily be applied in the future. Praise is well-deserved for this generation's new odd-couple, Paul Giammati and Thomas Haden Church. Each of their characters has individual qualities, whether they be good or bad, that play off so brilliantly off each other that it is purely entertaining to watch them interact on screen. And sure, there are bound to be those audience members who have failed to grasp the concepts developed in this film and will therefore complain about how there was no "true" ending, just a lousy cliffhanger. In the same light as the conclusion to Mile's unpublished book, the ending is whatever you want to make of it to be. There is no right or wrong answer, but if we follow what has happened to Miles' up until this point, we can as debate over what we would want to happen. As in true life, not everything is certain and Sideways' ending is exactly that.
Paul Giamatti, having been backhanded by the Motion Picture Academy once again, performs brilliantly in the role of Miles Raymond, a man who goes out to wine country to give his best friend his last hoorah and ends up finding himself in the process. As with Jack, certain audience members may find Miles to be a bit too pessimistic and cynical of his view of the world to find him all that likable. But what needs to be remembered is that this is the nature of Miles' character and as the story digs deeper into his personal failures and dead-end streets in his life, the more understanding we become of his current philosophy in life. There is this immensely romantic sequence within the film in which Maya discusses the feeling she has or the thoughts she develops in her mind whenever she drinks a bottle of wine. As she delivers this exceptionally beautiful piece of dialogue, Miles appears nothing short of captivated by her words, feeling as if she has already grasped who he is inside. And then comes the precise moment in that scene where you will want to grab Miles by the shoulders, slap his face around a bit, and shout, "Kiss her you moron" only to no avail. Jack, played hilariously by Thomas Haden Church, is without a doubt one of the most unlikable characters you will come across. He is loud, crude, embarrassingly sexually promiscuous, and arrogant beyond all pretension. But those rather coarse traits aside, he does happen to have his moment in which, once you are able to get past the excessive profanity and sexual innuendos, he speaks quite profoundly on certain subjects as when he attempts to have Miles lighten for once in his life after he finds out his wife has remarried. Virginia Madsen, in the role of Maya, is nothing short of breathtakingly eloquent and beautiful in this film, performing admirably opposite Paul Giammati and never once playing off dialogue as clichéd as it would sound coming from anyone else with less experience then she has.
Overall, no matter how young or old you happen to be, whether you are male or female, you will be able walk away from Sideways with a new view on life, on how we need not be overtly optimistic or pessimistic but instead be content with what life gives us and work with it while we still have time. For those moviegoers who have yet to even approach what one would call the 'prime age-range' for a midlife crisis, the film's underlying themes on the 'crossroads' in our lives and how we should view the world are still particularly poignant and divulge valuable lessons that can easily be applied in the future. Praise is well-deserved for this generation's new odd-couple, Paul Giammati and Thomas Haden Church. Each of their characters has individual qualities, whether they be good or bad, that play off so brilliantly off each other that it is purely entertaining to watch them interact on screen. And sure, there are bound to be those audience members who have failed to grasp the concepts developed in this film and will therefore complain about how there was no "true" ending, just a lousy cliffhanger. In the same light as the conclusion to Mile's unpublished book, the ending is whatever you want to make of it to be. There is no right or wrong answer, but if we follow what has happened to Miles' up until this point, we can as debate over what we would want to happen. As in true life, not everything is certain and Sideways' ending is exactly that.
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