A Scientist at the Movies Reviews by Greg Paris

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Title: Sideways

Date Viewed: 12/28/04

Details:

Paul Giamatti (Miles Raymond)

Thomas Haden Church (Jack)

Virginia Madsen (Maya)

Sandra Oh (Stephanie)

Written & directed by: Alexander Payne

Score: -1/2

The Review: A road trip into California wine country filled with middle-age angst, embarrassing buddy situations and pre-marital sex-capades. A high-school English teacher and unpublished novelist (Giamatti) takes, as a gift, his best friend and actor (Church) on a wine-tasting bachelor trip for the week preceding his wedding, and the situation goes downhill from there.

There are scenes that are screamingly, roll-in-the-aisles funny, and others that are so acutely uncomfortable that you want to fold into yourself, pull up the covers and ignore what's going on. There are scenes with significant, intelligent conversation and discussion of ideas (usually about wine), but you keep wanting to slap these people upside the head and say, "just do it -- stop whining and start a winery!" Sideways provides an emotional roller-coaster ride, and I for one have never been a fan of roller-coasters.

The central four characters are alternately interesting, real, frustrating, annoying, mean and provoking -- perhaps this was the intent, and if so, Sideways is certainly successful. Whether this makes for entertainment is up to you, but each character is certainly well-drawn and very well-acted. The most interesting, sensitive and sympathetic is Maya (Madsen), who is waiting tables while going to graduate school part-time. On the other hand, while occasionally articulate (and at his most fascinating when talking about the nuances of pinot noir), Miles (Giamatti) is more often morose or drunk (or both); and his reason for stopping to visit his mother en route is despicable. For all that he's getting married within a week, Jack (Church) seems most interested in the next skirt he wants to lift, and is engaged only on a downward spiral of sexual conquests and tasteless consumption of more wine. Attractive and quirky, Stephanie (Oh) emerges only as the lightning rod and avenger.

A warning: don't go to this movie with your parents or your children.

(30-Dec-04)

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