Sideways is a tragic story about middle-aged depression and the feeling of loss of value and love that comes with getting older. I liked this movie a lot, however, despite its sadness. It is expertly written and very smart. The acting is great too: I'm a huge Paul Giamati fan, not to mention great acting by the irresistible Sandra Oh and the funny Thomas Haden Church-- Virginia Madsen was charming. I also find the overall take-away message to be something meaningful.
On the surface, it was kind of enjoyable listening to all the wine aficionado stuff. The writer obviously knew a lot about wine tasting in California and passed it on to Paul Giamati's character via flowery descriptions of pinots and cabernets.
The subtle, wry humor throughout, mixed in with some slapstick laughs (like the golf course scene, one of my favorites) was also great in this movie. I'm sure that this sense of humor isn't for everybody, but I admit that my movie taste is slightly offbeat.
But on a deeper level, I liked this movie because of what Giamati's character learns over the course of his adventure: to be honest and true to oneself, to not give up despite failure, and to cherish good relationships.
I think that the scene where Giamati and Maya are talking about why they like wine is pivotal. Their descriptions symbolize their own views on life. Paul says he likes good wine because it takes a lot of persistence and tough work to make it. It's not too difficult to see that his character is struggling to make his own life a good one through a lot of tedious, painful trying. Maya says she likes wine because a bottle is always changing and evolving in flavor over the years, as it ages. It must be taken advantage of while it's at the peak before it goes into a decline, she says. Their two perspectives on life mesh and Maya shows Paul that his life isn't over when you're middle-aged, rather, it's changing for the better.
In the end, good prevails. Giamati's friend (Haden Church) learns that he's actually very lucky to have a loving fiance and how he needs to mature a lot before he gets married. And Giamati gets over his failures and turns a new leaf over, though it takes an adventure and some pain to do it. In this way, I find it similar to the Spanish movie Lucia, Lucia, in which the middle-aged main character discovers joy in her life again after an adventure.
This was nominated for 5 Oscars and rightfully so.
