Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

"Sideways": 'Bathed in the solvent of exquisite sadness'

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • "Sideways": 'Bathed in the solvent of exquisite sadness'

    The Guardian, UK
    Jan 28 2005

    Sideways
    *****
    Cert 15

    Peter Bradshaw



    'Bathed in the solvent of exquisite sadness': Sideways


    New classics of American cinema don't come along that often, so grab
    this one with both hands. It's an occasion for the singing of
    hosannas from the roof of every cinema. Director Alexander Payne has
    already given us two gems with Election and About Schmidt. This
    glorious, bittersweet comedy of male friendship and midlife crisis is
    even better. It's something to be compared with John Cassavetes or
    Hal Ashby or Woody Allen's Annie Hall; a particular kind of
    freewheeling film-making that hasn't surfaced for decades.
    Sideways is beautifully written, terrifically acted; it is paced and
    constructed with such understated mastery that it is a sort of
    miracle. The observations are pitilessly exact and meshed with
    impeccably executed sight gags and funny lines, and everything is
    bathed in the solvent of exquisite sadness. Yet its gentleness and
    humanity do not preclude a mule-kick of emotional power. Audiences at
    the screenings where I have been present may have heard something
    like a fusillade of gunshots from the auditorium; it was the sound of
    my heart breaking into a thousand pieces.

    Paul Giamatti and Thomas Haden Church give the performances of their
    lives, complemented by two outstanding female leads: Sandra Oh and
    Virginia Madsen. Giamatti is Miles, the divorced English teacher and
    would-be novelist well into his 40s, who is staring failure full in
    the face. Church plays his buddy and old college roommate Jack: a
    handsome-ish actor and incorrigible "pussyhound" whose career washed
    up after a couple of TV shows 10 years before.

    With many a suppressed bachelor's misgiving, he is about to get
    married, and acquire some rich Armenian-American in-laws who want him
    to leave showbusiness and come in with them in their fabulously
    lucrative property business. Jack is still in the process of kidding
    himself that he can do that and still keep the door open to getting
    back into movies. For his part, Miles is kidding himself that his
    ex-wife might still want to make another go of it.

    The pair of them, deep in denial about the way their lives are
    turning out, go on a road trip. It is Miles's "wedding gift" to Jack:
    he will take him on a tour of the Californian wine country, and teach
    him about the passion for wine that has taken over his life.
    Secretly, he is hoping for a little male bonding to salve his
    wretched loneliness. But all Jack is hoping for is some bedroom
    action with local women before he has to tie the knot - and Miles
    cloaks his desolate feelings of betrayal with righteous disgust. All
    he can do to manage his despair is concentrate on the new love of his
    life: wine.

    Jonathan Nossiter's documentary Mondovino was recently much praised
    for its insights into the globo-Californian wine business; but for
    me, Sideways says more on the subject in five minutes than Nossiter
    managed in two hours. Miles loves pontificating at tastings, and
    comes up with the most uproarious wine-snobbisms since James
    Thurber's famous line: "It's a naive domestic burgundy, but I think
    you'll be amused by its presumption." Miles fastidiously sips a
    Cabernet and pronounces it: "Quaffable but far from transcendent." To
    Jack's bemusement, he rolls another vintage around his palate and
    claims to detect hints of strawberry, asparagus, and Dutch Edam. "The
    strawberries ... yeah ... " agrees Jack, having earnestly tasted it
    himself, " ... but not the cheese." Miles identifies with Pinot grape
    because it's delicate and sensitive like him, but it's only when he
    meets beautiful, divorced Maya - an excellent performance from
    Virginia Madsen - that he finds a kindred wine-loving spirit and
    someone who might redeem his sorry life.

    Some of the brilliance of Payne's film is that he presents Miles's
    passion for wine with no obvious signposting as to what we should
    think about it, and lets an awful thought dawn unassisted. Miles's
    oenophilia might simply be a very elaborate way of dressing up the
    banal problem of alcoholism. Two banal problems, if you count
    incipient depression. Miles has created a complete and complex
    culture in which his drinking can be made to seem like something with
    status. And now that his buddy is getting married and leaving him
    alone in his wretched world of singledom, he somehow needs Jack's
    benediction and understanding of his new monkish vocation for
    drinking away what remains of his life.

    Yet it is a measure of the humanity and sympathy of this film that
    this explanation would not be entirely fair. Poor, battered Miles -
    devastated by the failure of his marriage and the rejection of his
    novel - has at least found a genuine passion. There is an
    extraordinary moment when, stunned by the news that his ex-wife has
    in fact remarried, Miles can find comfort only in stroking grapes: a
    bizarre image that Payne somehow makes sad and irresistibly funny at
    once.

    The sadness is balanced with wonderfully observed comedy as Jack
    embarks on a crazy affair with Stephanie (Sandra Oh), a pourer from
    one of the wineries, and finally has a one-night stand with a diner
    waitress whose husband makes an unwelcome appearance. The upshot is a
    scene of hilarious, nail-biting tension.

    Alexander Payne has raised his game very satisfyingly with this film,
    taking his familiar preoccupation with male menopausal angst and
    giving it a new gentleness, richness and maturity. Sideways now has
    five Oscar nominations: including one for best picture. It is light
    years ahead of the preening, pumped-up competitors in this category
    (The Aviator, Finding Neverland, Million Dollar Baby and Ray). We can
    only hope.
Working...
X