Sideways

Give two middle aged men a week in California wine country and you’ve got a story.  Make one an overgrown party boy looking for one last notch on his belt before getting married and the other a depressive downer anxiously waiting to hear if his novel is being published, then you’ve got a movie.

Miles (Paul Giamatti) and Jack (Thomas Haden Church) have been friends since college.  Jack went on to become an actor, mostly in soap operas and commercials.  Miles teaches eighth grade English and spent the last three years of his life writing a novel he’s trying to get published.  So far, he’s been turned down by two publishers.  The week in wine country is Miles’ wedding gift to Jack and something they’ve talked about doing for ages.  Problem is, Miles is interested in wine and Jack is interested in getting them laid.

Jack sets up a double date with two of the wine waitresses they’ve met.  Stephanie (Sandra Oh) is obviously interested in Jack and Maya (Virginia Madsen) has slowly gotten to know Miles whenever he’s in town.  While Jack celebrates his last week of freedom with Stephanie (who doesn’t know he’s getting married), Miles gets put to the side.  That only gives him more time to wallow in self loathing and question if he should get with Maya.  It isn’t long before the trip turns into a disaster.

Whether you’re into wine or not, you might learn a lot about it just watching Sideways.  Miles explains how to smell the wine, why you swirl it first, how to look at it and what exactly you’re looking for.  He and Maya also talk about the process and different types of grapes.  I promise, it isn’t boring.

At times in conversation, wine becomes a metaphor.  Miles tells Maya that he enjoys pinot because it takes a real commitment to grow and let it thrive.  Is there a connection between the growing of pinot and writing a novel?  Maya explains how wine is a living thing, it had a life in the field and so many people put part of their lives into working for it.  She talks about how a wine peaks and then declines, just like people.  Is Miles at his peak?  Is Maya as well?  Why not open himself up?  What is he waiting for?  Maya obviously wants to open him up but Miles won’t, perhaps he doesn’t feel worthy since his novel, his whole life, isn’t thriving.  Never has wine talk been so deep.

Anyway, that’s my interpretation of this film.  It could be swirled, sipped and savored for the fine wine that it is, or you could chug it from the bottle and miss the whole point.  Problem is, when you just chug at life like Jack does, you’re more likely to end up with a broken nose and running back to your motel naked through an ostrich farm.

To fully grasp and enjoy this film, I believe you need to be in the double-mature audience.  That means, if your idea of a fine wine is shotgunning Keystone Light till you puke, I don’t know if this will resonate with you, but you might be able to identify with Jack.  But you don’t have to be a wine snob with the best bottle of pinot noir in town either.  What really need is a level head that can appreciate the wine talk, read between the lines and see that this is a story of men still trying to grow up in their forties.

“I know you disapprove, and I respect that. But there are some things that I have to do that you don’t understand. You understand literature, movies, wine… but you don’t understand my plight.”

Dodsworth

Sam Dodsworth (Walter Huston) has just retired from his automobile business and plans on traveling Europe with his wife, Fran (Ruth Chatterton).  From the start, it seems they have different ideas on how to spend retirement.  Sam wants to see and do everything; he gets so excited over all of England’s history while they’re still on the ship.  Fran however wants to be very social and hob-knob with high class society where ever they go.  She starts to become weary of her age, gets too social and starts flirting with every rich young man she finds.  Poor Sam is oblivious to his wife’s deception for a while, but once it is discovered he realizes how far apart they’ve drifted.  Is there any hope in their marriage?

That all sounds kinda melodramatic, doesn’t it?  Well, it’s not.  Sam isn’t the kind of sap that could be stuck in a soap opera.  He’s a good old American hard worker who’s built a company for the past twenty years and brought all the bacon home to a wife he dearly loves.  Even in his middle age, he’s energetic and passionate.  When he see’s a light in the distance on the ship, he runs to his wife and her latest dance partner to have them see too.

Problem is all of that bores Fran to pieces.  She doesn’t care for any of the great monuments, museums or history around her, she just wants to party like it’s 1939.  That means dressing up in her best gowns, sipping drinks with the rich and dancing with younger men.  She seems ashamed of her husband for wanting to run around and sit in street cafes like an American hick.

I rather enjoyed seeing a woman’s mid-life crisis at work.  Usually we only hear about men in a new sports car looking for younger women and claiming to be only thirty-five.  Women can sink just as low, and in some cases it just seems shallow and ungrateful.

My favorite scene has to be when Fran meets her hopeful mother-in-law-to-be.  She’s an old hag of a woman (her son can’t be much older than twenty-five) with a big shiny cross hanging around her neck and boy does she put Fran in her place.  The old woman condones Fran for being immoral enough to plan a divorce and then asks her how much happiness she expects from the life of an old wife to a young man.  What an eye-opener!

Throughout the film, I just didn’t feel like I was watching some old, worn out crusty reel from the 1930’s.  The story honestly captured my attention; I was invested from start to finish cheering on Sam and detesting Fran.  There were no intrusions of random song or dance, thank heaven!  If you want to steer clear of theatrical performances and just want a great story, skip The Great Zeigfeld, Dodsworth is the one for you.

“You’ll have to stop getting younger someday.”