Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor (based on the novel by Rex Pickett)
Music :
Rolfe Kent
Cast :
Miles: Paul Giamatti
Jack: Thomas Haden Church
Maya: Virginia Madsen
Stephanie: Sandra Oh
Miles' mother: Marylouise Burke
Victoria: Jessica Hecht
Cammi: Missy Doty
Christine: Alysia Reiner
I do enjoy a good road trip movie, and that's what you get with Sideways.
Miles (Paul Giamatti) wants to give his best friend Jack (Thomas Haden Church) a final week
to remember before he gets married, so takes him travelling round California sampling fine wines, playing
golf and doing a spot of male-bonding before the rigours of life call them back and normality returns.
At the same time, Jack sees that Miles, a would-be writer who's having great problems getting his latest
opus published, is depressed and needs to be reminded what it's like to have fun and not live like Victor
Meldrew... Miles also needs to get laid, although he's got so much emotional baggage regarding his ex-wife,
who's since been remarried, it'll take a miracle to shake that off and achieve a result.
The closest he's going to get is with the waitress of a nearby restaurant, Maya (Virginia Madsen, right with Giamatti),
whom he's met on a number of occasions before as he tours the vineyards. However, he discounts this thought,
despite Jack's reassurances, because Maya wears a wedding ring when serving customers... but is she still
married, and would that matter anyway? So many possibilities. And how does horny-as-hell Jack do with her
friend, and server at a wine-tasting bar, Stephanie (Sandra Oh)? He wants to get his rocks off one
last time before settling down, but events begin to take anything less than the ordinary with that
relationship.
It's entirely fascinating to watch and hope Miles and Jack get what they want, and that Miles gets over
his ex-wife. You can tell Miles and Maya hit it off over their loves of fine wines, while Jack drifts
off with Stephanie (right), but while it would sound daft to suggest you should expect the unexpected, not everything
will turn out as you expect and it's all there to be cherished. Madsen and Oh provide good support, the
former doing better and showing she can hold her own in such a movie when she's not relegated to a daft
love-interest (see
Highlander 2). However, it's the fanastic
chemistry between Giamatti and Church that makes this one a real winner. These are two fantastic actors,
both undervalued by the mainsteam movie industry and/or not being the household names that they deserve,
although Giamatti took a role in the recent animated movie Robots and Church is in 2007's
Spiderman 3, so let's hope their stars are both in their ascendancy.
And unlike many films out there today, I would say it has the perfect ending. Of course, I won't say why,
but even if I did it wouldn't make sense without you having taken the full trip with Miles and Jack first.
With a film like Sideways there's not a massive amount you can say in a review other than describe
the premise and comment on a few things without giving spoilers since there's so much of it that's just there
to be watched and to see what surprises you amongst the pleasantly-pedestrian. By the latter words, there's
nothing bad about this film at all, I mean that as the film progresses and for those scenes where not much
happens I can really enjoy those, too, and you let the surprises come as and when they're due.
The film is presented in anamorphic 1.85:1 widescreen and suffers from Occasionally poor encoding
during fast motion which makes things appear 'sticky'. The disc also stuck in one DVD player between
the 1-hour point and another 13 minutes later so I hope any such problems are fixed with the retail
release compared to this promo disc, as I had to change DVD players.
The soundtrack is in Dolby Digital 5.1 and with that I can find no fault, but
it never uses the soundstage to any great degree so you're not missing out if
you only have a surround sound setup.
The extras aren't much to write home about. There are allegedly some hidden easter eggs on this disc, but
I'm damned if I can find them. As for the rest:
Deleted Scenes (16½ mins):
8 scenes, all with written introductions from the director, and all of which are definitely worth a look
outside of the film - particularly the two involving the dog, but as it was intended to keep the film
down to around two hours in length, certain things had to be excised from the final cut. All are
in letterboxed 1.85:1 and surround sound.
Behind-the-scenes featurette (6½ mins):
A typical short, in 4:3, with the main cast and the director giving soundbites inbetween letterboxed clips
of the film. Worth a look, given that it was a great film to watch, but not an extra you'll go back to.
Audio commentary:
With the lead actors, Paul Giamatti and Thomas Haden Church.
The disc is also inflicted with a few piss-annoying trailers that you're
forced to sit through the second the disc boots up as if it was a rental title. You can skip past them, but
they're preceeded by an even more "DON'T PIRATE THIS!" patronising advert for FACT. Jeez, I just want
to watch the freaking thing, but I can't with all this crap getting in the way first!
The film contains a good 32 chapters, subtitles are available in English and the
main menu is animated and scored with a looped piece of music from the film.
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
I do enjoy a good road trip movie, and that's what you get with Sideways.
It's entirely fascinating to watch and hope Miles and Jack get what they want, and that Miles gets over
his ex-wife. You can tell Miles and Maya hit it off over their loves of fine wines, while Jack drifts
off with Stephanie (right), but while it would sound daft to suggest you should expect the unexpected, not everything
will turn out as you expect and it's all there to be cherished. Madsen and Oh provide good support, the
former doing better and showing she can hold her own in such a movie when she's not relegated to a daft
love-interest (see
