More on Sideways

I rewatched Sideways (review on page 8) yesterday morning after getting it back from my friend Thomas, another movie-phile. He didn’t like it, mainly because he thought that the main character, Miles, was overly depressed and unsympathetic. I agree with him that Miles is a bit of a sadsack, but I think that all the characters openly recognize that Miles is down. And it seems as though there is good reason for this to be the case. He apparently took care of his dying father, his sister is a mental case, and he’s been through a divorce, where he was belittled and, to feel empowered, had an affair. He’s still a funny guy who sees through a lot of bull – I would want to know him. Ultimately, the way I feel about Miles at the end of the movie is the way Maya sounds when she leaves the message on his phone: sympathetic and willing to give him a chance. As she says, your book is “beautiful and painful…Did you really go through all that?” “Did the father finally commit suicide, or what?”

The movie is also about friendship. Though each of them gives good advice to the other, the other does what they will do, regardless. It’s amazing how loyal we are to our friends, though we know they often do things that we know are wrong. And yet sharing special moments is just too good – like when Jack meets Miles’ eyes as he’s getting married – that we keep our friendships going anyway. As Jack says before embarking on another : “Listen, man. You’re my friend, and I know you care about me. And I know you disapprove. And I respect that. But there are some things that I have to do that you don’t understand. I mean, you understand literature, movies, wine… But you don’t understand my plight.” It’s sad that they separate at the end. There’s a sense that they won’t be seeing each other much now that Jack is ensconced in his new family.

I think when Miles looks at Jack towards the end (after he gets caught with someone’s wife and starts crying) and after this trip when he is fawned over by his fiancee’s family and he finds out that his ex-wife is pregnant (she unnecessarily piles on), he realizes the ridiculousness of it all anyway. There’s no point in dwelling in his misery, when it’s all pretty arbitrary in the first place. When he loses this pretention, he drinks the bottle of ’61 Cheval Blanc (that was meant for his 10^th anniversary that wasn’t going to happen) and ultimately, realizes that he needs to live. And he knocks on the door of the opportunity. According to Alexander Payne, Maya wouldn’t have been there, but I’m glad he left it open-ended.

Lastly, if you get a copy of the DVD, check out the commentary by Paul Giamatti and Thomas Haden Church. They’re hilarious and insightful.