Film Review - Sideways

Continuing with Wine Weekend, aka rounding up any excess points, I watched Sideways, starring Paul Giamatti, Thomas Haden Church, Sandra Oh, and Virginia Madsen.  Since I started working as a pourer, I’ve had tons of people ask if I had seen this movie (even though a good deal of them didn’t really seem to care for it), so I finally found some time to see what it was all about.  

The film is set in the Santa Barbara region of California, located in the South-Central Coast.  The story begins with two men, Miles and Jack traveling from San Diego into some of California’s wineries.  Miles, a rather unsuccessful aspiring writer, shows up to take his good friend Jack on a bachelor party week of wine tastings, golf, and dinners, but all Jack can think about his having sex with someone else before tying the knot with his fiancée, Christine.  Coming off a rough divorce, Miles is going through a difficult time in his life, but despite this, he’s trying to make Jack’s bachelor party week memorable.  However, to Miles’ dismay, the excitement of wine tastings and vineyard tours is completely lost on Jack, who has extremely limited knowledge of wine, and frankly, he doesn’t seem to care much about them at all, except for their intoxicating properties.  Conversely, Miles has come to appreciate all the nuances and efforts that go into the production of wine, something that he and his ex-wife were able to share together.  Because of this, their wine tours are somewhat overshadowed by Miles’ emotional baggage and his memories of the time spent with his ex-wife in the South Central Coast wine regions.  

Despite Jack’s apathy toward the experience, Miles can’t help but educate Jack on his favorite elements relating to wine.  These scenes, albeit brief, were what I found most interesting about, although they were fairly basic facts and they happened relatively quickly.  For example, Miles relates some facts about his favorite grape, Pinot Noir, as Jack pours a white Pinot Noir in the car.  Completely ignorant, Jack asks, “Pinot Noir? How come it’s white?” to which Miles indignantly begins to explain the grapes’ free run without the skins.  This seemed to me to be fairly basic knowledge, and for that I think this film would be best as an introduction to wine.  The problem I encountered throughout the film was that this part of the scene (and many others) seemed only an afterthought to the actual plot or to what was truly important to the characters.  Following this was one of the better scenes, in which Miles explains the production of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay in Santa Barbara; Miles describes to Jack how he likes all varietals, but some of the California vineyards manipulate Chardonnay wines with too much time spent in oak or in secondary Malolactic fermentation, which for Miles masks the flavors he wants from the wine.  Miles also touches on the region, discussing how the Pinot Noir grape is thin-skinned, and sensitive to the elements, and thrives in Santa Barbara because the cool air coming off the Pacific Ocean at night lightly cools the grapes.  Once again though, these facts seemed to provide more of a character background of Miles as a wine aficionado than particularly relevant to the plot or the vibe of the film.

Pinot Noir Grape

The first half of the film seemed to have the most information on wine.  Upon arriving to their first tasting (where Miles seems to be recognized as a regular customer), Miles goes through the wine tasting basics, taking Jack through examining the color of the wine as well as taking in the different aromas present.  As is typical of his character, Jack just wants to drink the wine and move on to find loose women.  Things begin to deteriorate between the two characters the next morning, where Jack informs Miles that he plans to get laid before his wedding at all costs, and Miles should know not to mess it up.  Miles is completely uncomfortable with the situation, knowing that infidelity wouldn’t be good for Christine or Jack.  Additionally, Miles is beginning to realize that Jack has almost no interest in the wines at all.  However, upon meeting Stephanie, a young pourer at one of California’s wineries, Jack suddenly starts liking all of the wines, even though Miles is unimpressed with most of them. 

Miles educates a clueless Jack about the proper tasting technique

Stephanie makes a good impression on Jack,
while the wines make a bad impression with Miles

Miles becomes attracted to a waitress named Maya that he had met on one of his many sojourns to Santa Barbara, and she is all the more attractive because she has an extensive knowledge of wines that she picked up from her ex-husband.  Both newly single, Miles and Maya begin an awkward attempt at a double date with Jack and the sexualized pourer Stephanie.  Miles’ personal emotional troubles threaten to derail the entire evening, but Jack attempts to put him in place before they enter the restaurant; although Miles agrees to calm down, he is vociferous about leaving if anyone should be so ignorant as to order Merlot.  This very brief part of the scene highlights the wine drinking trends around the time of the film; clearly Merlot was viewed as the go-to wine for oblivious or novice wine drinkers, something that Miles wants no part in.  His snobby attitude evaporates later when he sees Stephanie's modest, but decadent wine collection.

The most prominent scene relating to wine occurs between Miles and Maya on the back porch of Stephanie’s house.  Miles, who is clearly having trouble talking to women after his divorce, describes to Maya the details of Pinot Noir production, which Maya interprets as a loose metaphor for the care and attention Miles would give the right woman.  Miles explains that the thin-skinned, temperamental Pinot Noir grape is much harder to cultivate than most other grapes, requiring constant care and attention as well as patience and nurturing.  Miles feels that this care is what makes the wines so much better than others, and Maya is clearly responsive to his enthusiasm about wine.  Upon hearing that he has a 1961 Cheval Blanc, she encourages him to open it rather than wait for a special occasion, because the celebration is opening the bottle itself. 

Maya is awed by Miles' extensive wine knowledge

 

Miles misses an opportunity, but this was, in
my opinion, the best scene for those interested in wine.

I found this to be more of a superficial wine film than I expected.  There was a clear plot and wine seemed to be a background element to that; although there was some decent background knowledge available, they were mostly quick comments at the end of scenes or brief cuts.  There were a few cuts of the vines and pickings as well as some barrels of grapes, but those scenes didn’t seem to affect the plot in a major way or influence the overall vibe of the movie.  For example, Miles, Jack, Maya, and Stephanie all go out to dinner and there are a bunch of wine bottles in the background, but the discussion of wine is very limited, and the scene is much more about Paul’s emotional distress than the clove flavor in the wine he’s tasting.  The group attends a lecture on the Pinot Noir grape, but they leave before hearing any real facts.  Additionally, Jack berates Miles for bringing up Vouvray, but there is no further discussion on what it is or why it is significant.

I would have appreciated this movie a lot differently if I hadn’t seen Bottle Shock first, because I definitely compared the two for their wine information.  I felt like Sideways had much more novice information, where as Bottle Shock, having been based on a true story, had some more detailed information about the production of wine, the new world vs. old world styles, and wine flaws.  I would be remiss not to include that I thought the characters were awful (the acting was fine, though); Miles was kind of a pathetic guy and Jack was a total dirtbag.  That being said, I would certainly recommend Sideways as a movie to watch much earlier in the semester, or for those just beginning to become interested in wines, because it covers more of the novice aspects of wine tasting while incorporating an engrossing story.  However, to those who expect a comedy, I found almost nothing funny about this film at all, despite it being advertised as such.  It was actually a pretty depressing film, although Miles’ enthusiasm for wine did encourage me to think about my favorite wine that I’ve tried this semester, and I plan to go buy a bottle or two to open one of these days.  

Mmm...spit bucket wine.  One of my coworkers saw someone
drink from one of these as a bet once.