Sideways

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Sideways

Sideways is a 2004 Academy Award- winning and Golden Globe Award-winning comedy/drama film, co-written and directed by Alexander Payne. It is based on the 2004 novel of the same name by Rex Pickett.

Plot summary

Tagline: "In search of wine. In search of women. In search of themselves."

Paul Giamatti plays a recently divorced, unpublished writer, eighth-grade English teacher and oenophile named Miles, who takes his soon-to-be-married actor friend and old college roommate Jack (played by Thomas Haden Church) on a week-long road trip through Santa Ynez Valley wine country. Miles wants to drink wine, eat great food, play golf, and send Jack off in style. However, Jack is more interested in "sowing his wild oats" and having one last sexually libertine weekend. Soon after their arrival in wine country they meet Maya (Virginia Madsen), a waitress at Miles's favorite restaurant and Stephanie (Sandra Oh), a winery employee who happens to be friends with Maya.

Neither tells the women about Jack's impending nuptials, which happen to be the next weekend. Jack soon finds himself in a sexual and romantic imbroglio with Stephanie which inevitably puts an abrupt end to Miles' plan for taking Jack out for a good time. Although more than a little reluctant, Miles is willing to entertain Jack's antics convinced of the temporary nature of his newfound relationship with Stephanie. This only indicates early on that Miles is familiar with his friend's wild ways, occasionally taking on the role of authority over Jack if need be. Miles's decision to indulge Jack's philandering ways is no doubt also influenced by the fact that by virtue of Jack's support, Miles has begun to act on the crush he's developed on Maya. Soon Jack's relationship to Stephanie accelerates, putting Miles in a very precarious predicament as he continues to court Maya casually. Inevitably, Miles and Jack grow frustrated with one another. They carry on in spite of themselves.

Eventually, Miles consummates his relationship with Maya. The next day he lets slip the upcoming rehearsal dinner which leads to his revelation of the wedding. An infuriated Maya in turn breaks the news to Stephanie, who becomes apoplectic and mercilessly attacks Jack, smashing his face with her motorcycle helmet and providing a temporary stop at the hospital for Jack to receive medical support.

Miles hopes that this is the end of Jack's behavior. But undaunted, Jack manages to go home with a female fan who was serving their dinner, leaving an irritated Miles once again to his own devices. Back at the hotel, Miles is awoken in the middle of the night by a naked Jack who confesses that a cuckolded husband arrived home from work catching Jack in flagrante delicto with his wife, and he was forced to escape in the nude and run six klicks back to the motel, including a shortcut through an ostrich farm. Unfortunately, Jack left his wallet behind, which contained custom-designed wedding bands. He desperately wants to retrieve his belongings but needs Miles's help. Initially, Miles laughs at the situation and refuses to help Jack as he believes the incorrigible skirt-chaser may finally have learned a lesson. But finally Miles sees the desperation in his friend's breakdown and agrees to help him out. In fact, Miles agrees to personally reclaim the wallet by sneaking into the house to get it, passing by the rubenesque couple who were now engaged in sex themselves. Subsequently he is chased down the street by an enraged, portly naked man.

To finish off the weekend, Jack runs Miles's Saab into a tree in order to have corroborating evidence for his story that a car accident mangled his face. The ploy works much to Miles' chagrin. Jack's fiancee sympathizes with his injuries and the wedding is set for the following day.

Miles's ex-wife Victoria is still friendly with Jack and is at the wedding. Miles learns that she remarried and his romantic feelings for her are still strong. At the ceremeony, Victoria tells Miles she is pregnant. Miles congratulates ber but abruptly decides to skip the wedding reception and, instead, drink his prized bottle of wine; a 1961 Château Cheval Blanc accompanied by a fast food meal.

At this point, Paul Giamatti reveals in the DVD commentary that the majority of people whom he had watched the film with were taken to a different, incorrect conculsion, due to the revelation of his former girlfriend's pregnancy. Whilst rummaging in a box for what was in fact his prized wine, Giamatti made light of the scene, noting that "most of america expect me to get a luger out here, and blow my brains out".

It seems that this is the end for Miles. But Maya eventually returns his phone call. She has read his unpublished manuscript and a letter that he sent apologizing to her. Touched by his sentimental side, she leaves a message on his machine about how she cannot believe the book was turned down as she admired it but is confounded by portions of it, particularly the ending. This leaves an opening for the conclusion as the movie ends with Miles knocking on her door.

Critics have lauded Sideways for its clever use of metaphor. While intrinsically different people on the surface, Jack and Miles are similar in ways that are not obvious at first. As Sideways progresses the two men reveal those similarities and accompanying weaknesses by way of their obsessions - Miles with wine and Jack with women.

Awards and nominations

Sideways won the following awards:
Academy Awards:

Best Adapted Screenplay (Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor)

BAFTA Awards:

Adapted Screenplay (Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor)

Golden Globe Awards:

Best Motion Picture-Musical or Comedy
Best Screenplay

Gotham Awards:

Best Picture

National Board of Review of Motion Pictures:

Top Ten Film of 2004
Best Supporting Actor
Best Adapted Screenplay

IFP Independent Spirit Awards:

Best Male Lead
Best Supporting Male
Best Supporting Female
Best Screenplay
Best Director
Best Feature (won in all categories it was nominated for).

New York Film Critics Circle Awards:

Best Film

Screen Actors Guild Award:

Best Ensemble (Paul Giamatti, Sandra Oh, Thomas Haden Church, and Virginia Madsen).

It was nominated for the following awards:

Best Performance by an Actor in a Musical or Comedy, Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role, Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role, Best Original Score, and Best Director, Golden Globe Awards
Academy Awards for Best Picture, Church as Best Supporting Actor, Madsen as Best Supporting Actress

Post-release

A surprise hit, Sideways became popular in Hollywood, the US and internationally. Santa Ynez Valley, where much of the film is set, attracted increased tourism. The film was nominated for dozens of awards, winning many, and was dubbed "the best reviewed movie of 2004". With the exception of Giamatti, who had already starred in critically acclaimed films such as American Splendor, the film was a career breakthrough for the relatively unknown stars. Both Thomas Haden Church and Virginia Madsen were nominated for Oscars. Paul Giamatti has since been headlined as "The World's Best Character Actor" by Time Magazine. Giamatti was nominated for both a Golden Globe and an Oscar for his performance in 2005's Cinderella Man. Sandra Oh who has since broken up with the film's director, Alexander Payne, has gone on to star in Grey's Anatomy for which she won a Golden Globe and the Screen Actor's Guild (SAG) Award.

Trivia

George Clooney campaigned for the part of Jack, but Alexander Payne thought Clooney was too big a star.
The film dialogue heard while Miles and Jack are in their hotel room is Henry Fonda's famous "I'll be there" speech from The Grapes of Wrath.
During an emotional scene in the film, Miles talks with great passion about Pinot Noir. After the release of this movie sales of Pinot Noir wines rose by more than 20% over the Christmas/New Year period of 2004-2005, compared to the same period the previous year. A similar phenomenon was experienced in British wine outlets. Miles is deeply disparaging, in a different scene, about Merlot, and sales dropped after the film came out.
When Miles visits his mother, photographs are visible on the dresser showing Paul Giamatti with his real-life father, the late Bart Giamatti, commissioner of Major League Baseball and President of Yale University.
Miles and Jack drive a red Saab 900 convertible.
Director Alexander Payne created the wine list for the film.
Actress Sandra Oh took motorcycle lessons once she landed the role of Stephanie.
Many scenes in the film that were supposedly set in Wine Country were actually filmed in the Los Angeles area, though some scenes were indeed shot in Wine Country.
The dialogue at dinner between Miles, Jack, Maya and Stephanie was improvised.
Paul Giamatti, Thomas Haden Church and Marylouise Burke all got food poisoning from the dinner scene when they visit Miles' mother.
Much of the wine that was consumed during the film was either non-alcoholic or a grape juice substitute. Sometimes the actors switched over to real wine to cleanse their palates.
One of the fictional vineyards that Miles and Jack visit during their vacation is called "Frass Canyon", which Miles says with a sneer. Frass is insect excrement.
When Miles hits the ball back at the golfers behind them, the person who actually hit the ball was Rex Pickett, author of the novel the film was based on. He claims that Paul Giamatti's exceptionally poor golf form made it impossible for him to accomplish the shot.
Thomas Haden Church was in retirement from film concentrating on voiceover work when he received the phone call from Alexander Payne to audition for the role of Jack. Church was a finalist for a role in About Schmidt (2002), another Payne film, and Payne wanted to use the actor in one of his films. Ironically, Jack's occupation was that of a former actor turned voiceover announcer, much like Church was before he did this film.
Part of Payne's reasoning for casting actors who weren't as well known, such as Giamatti and Church, was to prove to movie studios that not all successful movies are star-driven.
Both stars of the film, Paul Giamatti and Thomas Haden Church, play exterminators in separate CGI films. Church plays an animal exterminator in Dreamworks' Over the Hedge, and Giamatti plays a bug exterminator in The Ant Bully.

Cast

Paul Giamatti - Miles Raymond
Thomas Haden Church - Jackson 'Jack' Lapote
Virginia Madsen - Maya Randall
Sandra Oh - Stephanie

Soundtrack

DVD

Image:Sideways DVD cover.jpg|April 5, 2005

External links

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