Sideways

Paul Giamatti, Thomas Haden Church, Virginia Madsen, Sandra Oh

2004
Fox Searchlight Pictures

My wife would classify this movie under "one of my boring talkie movies" because the majority of it is dialogue driven. But I like that, and this movie is no exception. The characters occasionally meander toward being overly self-absorbed to the point of annoyance (and I'm talking about the male characters - the females are far more sympathetic) but we still on some level want to see them succeed.

What really impressed me most about this film actually was the portrayal of the settings. Usually in movies when they have a setting in a small apartment or a "regular joe's" house, you can tell that someone has constructed the set to look that way. In this movie, Madsen's apartment looks like a waitress's apartment - and the trucker's house looks like a trucker's house. I'm sorry if I can't explain this concept with more precision, but these are the best words I can use for the situation.

Overall, I wouldn't consider this to be the best movie I've ever seen, but it is notable for the satirical portrayal of wine afficionados (whom most of us, I would presume, consider to be horrible snobs!) - that aspect has some humourous moments.

VG