A Pinoy Blog About Nothing

Going into the movie Sideways with Petite, we were conscious of how this little movie was being talked about in the media. Some critics love it while others seem to find it too commonplace. It’s either you like the film or you hate it. There’s no middle ground it seems.

My perspective is this: if you subscribe to the notion of “chick flicks” i.e. movies designed specifically for women, then this must be a “guy film”. It’s a guy film, not in the mold of say Jerry Bruckheimer movies like The Rock or Armageddon but more along the lines of Swingers and to some extent, Fight Club. And we both liked it.

Based on a book with the same title, the premise is very simple: two friends, Miles and Jack, embark on an adventure in California’s wine country to celebrate Jack’s passage into married life. In other words, it’s a week-long bachelor’s party.

If the two leads were twentysomething starlets, the movie would’ve been another iteration of American Pie or Porky’s. Instead we have the always amazing Paul Giamatti (check him out in American Splendor if you doubt this man deserves an Oscar) playing the frustrated author/English teacher divorcee Miles and Thomas Haden Church who plays an aging actor, Jack. Thus, we have two middle-aged men who feel the best years of their lives have passed them by and are holding on to what remains of their dreams - one an unsaleable novel, the other possibility of that Big Break.

As far as plot goes, it’s your typical bachelor party escapades. The two protagonists encounter winery clerk/single-mom Stephanie (Sandra Oh) and divorced waitress Maya (an older but still beautiful Virginia Madsen) and proceeds to fall into - not so much as wacky but more adult misadventures.

But the plot is not necessarily the thing here. Set in wine country because Miles is a wine afficionado and Jack just likes to get drunk, the movie is rife with talk of wine, vintage, and of course its metaphor to life. Avoiding the obvious cliches’ the movie is bittersweet as the two friends come to grasps in the coming changes in their lives. Listen to the dialogue and let the actors (all did fine work) give you a glimpse of their character’s mundane life. Their concerns are banal and commonplace, true. Who can’t relate to the fear of growing older, dream projects slipping away, unrequited love and the need to make sense of what’s going on in their lives?

But see, these are things men may not necessarily talk about even with good friends but may constantly think about. I love the dynamics between Miles and Jack. One’s a worry-wart and the other is a man with an underdeveloped superego. They bicker and argue with each other. But that’s how guys relate to each other. They may not be big on hugs and tears like in most chick flicks but yes they do care for each other a lot and these manifest in the strangest ways (you’ll get what I mean when you watch the movie).

Life like wine, isn’t for the timid, they say. And Sideways is a movie that you shouldn’t be afraid to dive into. Sure you may not have a Pitt or a Clooney as stars but at least its a small movie where you have people who can act and who you can genuinely care for.