Sideways

Last Friday night we watched Sideways. It was an okay movie, despite all the negative hype I had heard about it. "What dogs men can be" and "it is such a downer movie" were pretty much the headliners I had heard going in to the movie. And, well, they were pretty much confirmed after viewing the film. But truth be known, I spent the first twenty minutes going crazy trying to figure out where I had seen Thomas Hadden Church before. I knew he had been on some dumb TV show somewhere back in time and couldn't quite place him. I finally had to stop the movie and do a google search to figure out that he had been a regular on "Wings". Such relief to finally place him as the goofy mechanic Lowel Mather and be able to continue on with the movie.

As doggy as Church's character was, just as depressing, was the the passive aggressiveness of the character of Paul and the hyper neediness of Stephanie, played by Sandra Oh. Sandra Oh, by the way, I find to be an interesting actress to watch, and think she is pretty funny in Gray's Anatomy.

My father-in-law asked over breakfast the next day why I thought the movie was called Sideways. His take was that the characters were not moving forward with their lives but rather moving sideways and not getting anywhere. I on the other hand, think the movie's title has more to do with self examination and reviewing the quality of one's life. When one examines a glass of wine, one not only smells it and tastes the wine by letting it roll around ones mouth, but one tips one's glass sideways to fully examine the color of the wine. Viewing the wine sideways you see how the color extends to the rim of the glass. The more color, the stronger the character of the wine, rendering it more exceptional. The weekend trip, for the character of Paul at least, was a catalystic moment in which he evaluated his life, fully excepting his failures, professional and personal. In the end, by viewing his life sideways, he saw what was lacking, dull and weak. I like to think that he offloaded some of his negative baggage and was finally able to start a new relationship, and move forward with his life.