Milkduds

Sideways (7/10)

April 25th, 2005

There has been a lot of hype around Sideways, especially after it got an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay and being nominated in other categories including Best Picture. I thought the movie as a whole was good, but many parts of the movie were great. Sideways is about two friends, Jack (Thomas Haden Church) and Miles (Paul Giamatti) that take a trip into the California wine country to celebrate Jack’s last week of bachelorhood. Miles, a wine connoisseur, intends on it being an innocent trip while enjoying the taste of great wine, but Jack has more carnal ideas and tries to get Miles to join in his plans.

What most impressed me in this film, was the depth and development of the characters and the juxtaposition of Miles and Jack. Church and Giamatti do excellent jobs portraying and executing their characters. There is also a hefty amount of realism in this movie that has a lot to do with disappointment, which I thought was done well without depressing the heck out the audience. I also have to note that there was a really cool camera effect done in a scene where Miles is very drunk and calls his ex-wife. The camera kept going in and out of focus and switching different angles at random. It sounds easy and simple, but I’ve never seen it done that well and effective. So, why did I not rate this higher? This movie didn’t ever capture me, like most Oscar-caliber films do. In fact, when the movie was over, I didn’t have much to say about it and was wondering what the movie was really all about.

Entry Filed under: Movies