Sideways

Sideways
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Alexander Payne
Produced by	Michael London
Screenplay by	Alexander Payne Jim Taylor
Based on	Sideways by Rex Pickett
Starring	Paul Giamatti Thomas Haden Church Virginia Madsen Sandra Oh
Music by	Rolfe Kent
Cinematography	Phedon Papamichael
Edited by	Kevin Tent
Production company	Michael London Productions
Distributed by	Fox Searchlight Pictures
Release date	September 13, 2004 (2004-09-13) (TIFF) October 22, 2004 (2004-10-22) (United States)
Running time	127 minutes[1]
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$16 million[1]
Box office	$109.7 million[1]

Sideways is a 2004 American black comedy drama film directed by Alexander Payne and written by Jim Taylor and Payne. A film adaptation of Rex Pickett's novel of the same name, Sideways follows two men in their forties, Miles Raymond (Paul Giamatti), a depressed teacher and unsuccessful writer, and Jack Cole (Thomas Haden Church), a past-his-prime actor, who take a week-long road trip to Santa Barbara County wine country to celebrate Jack's upcoming wedding. Sandra Oh and Virginia Madsen also star. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 13, 2004, and was released in the United States on October 22, 2004.

Payne and Taylor won multiple awards for their screenplay, with the cast also receiving accolades for their performances. Sideways won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, and was also nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (Haden Church) and Best Supporting Actress (Madsen).

Plot

Miles Raymond is an unsuccessful writer, a wine aficionado, and a divorced, depressed, alcoholic middle-aged English teacher living in San Diego. He takes Jack Cole, his soon-to-be-married actor friend and former college roommate, on a road trip through the Santa Ynez Valley wine country. Though Cole is still recognized on occasion, his acting career appears to have peaked years earlier, when he had a role in a popular TV soap. He now does commercial voice-overs and plans to enter his future father-in-law's successful real estate business. Miles wants to spend the week relaxing, playing golf and enjoying good food and wine. However, much to Miles' consternation, Jack is on the prowl and wants one last sexual fling before settling into domestic life.

In the wine country, the pair visit Miles' favorite restaurant, The Hitching Post II, and encounter Maya, a waitress with whom Miles is casually acquainted. Jack senses that Maya is interested in Miles, who believes she is married. Jack lies to Maya that Miles' manuscript has been accepted for publication, even though it is only being considered. At a tasting in a local winery, Jack and Miles meet a wine pourer named Stephanie, who is also acquainted with Maya. Jack is immediately attracted to Stephanie and arranges a double date, having discovered Maya is no longer married.

During the date, Miles gets drunk and telephones Vicki, his ex-wife, after learning from Jack that she has remarried. The two couples go to Stephanie's home, where she and Jack adjourn to her bedroom for sex. Miles and Maya connect through their mutual interest in wine. Maya says she is finishing a master's degree in horticulture so she can get out of being a waitress. They leave separately, but not before Miles gives her a copy of his manuscript.

Jack's affair with Stephanie continues, to the point where he believes he's falling in love; he bonds with her daughter and suggests to Miles that they move there for him to be closer to Stephanie. He wants to call off his wedding. After spending a day together, Miles and Maya return to her apartment and have sex. The next morning, Miles lets it slip that Jack is to be married. Disgusted with the men's dishonesty, Maya dumps Miles and tells Stephanie, who, furious and devastated that she's been used, breaks Jack's nose.

On finding out his manuscript has been rejected, Miles drinks heavily at a vineyard. When a server cuts him off, he ends up drinking from the spit bucket in the tasting room, creating a scene. That night, Jack hooks up with another waitress named Cammi, who recognizes him from his acting career. Hours later, Jack shows up at the motel  – naked and confessing that Cammi's husband came home while she and Jack were having sex. Jack was forced to flee without his clothes and wallet (which contains a pair of irreplaceable wedding rings). He convinces Miles to sneak into the house, where he discovers Cammi and her husband having sex. Miles grabs the wallet and runs, barely escaping Cammi's irate husband, who pursues him in the nude.

To explain his broken nose to his fiancée, Jack runs Miles' Saab 900 convertible into a tree, giving the appearance they had been in an accident. The pair return to the fiancée's home, where Jack is welcomed with open arms. Miles meanwhile drives away in his battered car.

Following the wedding ceremony, Miles runs into his ex-wife Vicki and meets her new husband. Learning that she is pregnant, Miles hits rock bottom. Alone, he drinks his prized wine, a 1961 Château Cheval Blanc, from a disposable styrofoam soda cup at a fast-food restaurant. Time passes as Miles returns to the routine of teaching school. One day he receives a voicemail from Maya, who says she enjoyed his manuscript and invites him to visit. Miles is seen driving back to wine country and knocking on Maya's door.

Cast

• Paul Giamatti as Miles Raymond - A timid and cautious teacher who is trying to get a book published and is now recently divorced. He is to be the best man at his best friend Jack's wedding and is giving him a road trip as a best man present.
• Thomas Haden Church as Jack Cole - Miles impulsive and thrill-seeking best friend. He is getting married in a week but is hoping to sleep with one new woman before he commits himself eternally to his fiance. Jack doesn't think about the consequences of his actions but he does seem to care about Miles and want to help him out with his problems.
• Virginia Madsen as Maya Randall
• Sandra Oh as Stephanie
• Marylouise Burke as Phyllis Raymond
• Jessica Hecht as Victoria
• Stephanie Faracy as Stephanie's mother
• Missy Doty as Cammi
• M.C. Gainey as Cammi's husband
• Alysia Reiner as Christine Erganian
• Shake Tukhmanyan as Mrs. Erganian
• Shaun Duke as Mike Erganian
• Phil Reeves as Vacationing Dr. Walt Hendricks

Impact on wine industry

The Hitching Post II Restaurant in Buellton where Miles and Jack first encounter Maya.

The film drew attention and increased tourism to the Santa Ynez Valley wine-growing region of California's Central Coast. Throughout the film, Miles speaks fondly of the red wine varietal Pinot Noir while denigrating Merlot.^[2][3] Following the film's U.S. release in October 2004, Merlot sales dropped 2% while Pinot Noir sales increased 16% in the Western United States. A similar trend occurred in British wine outlets.^{[3][4][5][6][7][8]}

A 2009 study by Sonoma State University found that Sideways slowed the growth in Merlot sales volume and caused its price to fall, but the film's main effect on the wine industry was a rise in the sales volume and price of Pinot Noir and in overall wine consumption.^[9]

A 2014 study by Vineyard Financial Associates estimated that Sideways cost Merlot farmers over $400M in lost revenue in the decade after its release, however this study is, by its own admission, speculative.^[10]

Soundtrack

The original soundtrack album features 15 jazz instrumentals composed and produced by Rolfe Kent and was orchestrated and arranged for the band by Tony Blondal. The album was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for "Best Original Score", and the music proved so popular there was demand for a national tour. Eventually a few cities were chosen to perform in as the composer was too busy to commit to more. The romantic leitmotif shared by Miles and Maya is excerpted from Symbiosis by Claus Ogerman and Bill Evans.

1. "Asphalt Groovin'" – 4:00
2. "Constantine Snaps His Fingers" – 3:03
3. "Drive!" – 3:56
4. "Picnic" – 2:15
5. "Lonely Day" – 1:40
6. "Wine Safari" – 2:13
7. "Miles' Theme" – 2:59
8. "Los Olivos" – 2:43
9. "Chasing the Golfers" – 3:03
10. "Walk to Hitching Post" – 2:32
11. "Abandoning the Wedding" – 3:25
12. "Slipping Away As Mum Sleeps" – 1:00
13. "Bowling Tango" – 0:49
14. "I'm Not Drinking Any #@%!$ Merlot!" – 1:13
15. "Miles And Maya" – 2:26

Reception

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 96% based on 223 reviews, with an average rating of 8.8/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Charming, thoughtful, and often funny, Sideways is a decidedly mature road trip comedy full of excellent performances."^[11] On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 94 out of 100, based on 42 critics, signifying "universal acclaim".^[12]

Time Out described the film as "intelligent, funny and moving",^[13] and Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film four stars, saying: "what happens during the seven days adds up to the best human comedy of the year – comedy, because it is funny, and human, because it is surprisingly moving."^[14] A surprise hit, Sideways became popular in Hollywood, the US, and internationally. Santa Ynez Valley, where much of the film is set, experienced increased tourism. The film was nominated for dozens of awards, winning many, and was dubbed "the best reviewed movie of 2004."

With the exception of Giamatti, who had already starred in critically acclaimed films such as American Splendor, the film was a career breakthrough for the stars. Church and Madsen were each nominated for the Screen Actors Guild Award, Golden Globe Award, and Academy Award for their performances, winning the Broadcast Film Critics Association Award and Independent Spirit Award for their respective categories. Giamatti has since been headlined as "The World's Best Character Actor" by Time magazine.^[15] Sandra Oh—who later broke up with the film's director, Alexander Payne—went on to star in the ABC medical drama Grey's Anatomy, for which she won two Screen Actors Guild Awards and one Golden Globe Award.

Sideways was ranked 494th on Empire's 2008 list of the 500 greatest movies of all time.^[16] In 2013, the Writers Guild of America also ranked its script as the 90th greatest ever written.^[17]

Awards and nominations

Remake

Fox International Productions and Fuji TV released a Japanese-language remake of the film in October 2009,^[18] often referred to in English as Saidoweizu (the anglicization of its Japanese title). The film is directed by Cellin Gluck and stars Katsuhisa Namase, Fumiyo Kohinata, Kyōka Suzuki, and Rinko Kikuchi, and has a soundtrack composed and performed by Hawaiian-born ukulele virtuoso Jake Shimabukuro.

The remake shifts the setting of the film to Napa Valley. Although listed as an executive producer, Payne was not involved with the remake, although he gave it his blessing.^[19] Giamatti declined an invitation to appear in an unspecified cameo appearance in the film.^[20]

Possible sequel

Pickett wrote a sequel to his novel, Vertical, in 2011, following Miles and Jack on a road trip to Oregon with Miles' mother. However, Payne has declined to consider a sequel to the film. Fox Searchlight owns the rights to the characters, but Payne's lack of interest makes the film a non-starter for Fox.^[21]

See also

• List of American films of 2004
• Second weekend in box office performance § Second-weekend increase

References

External links

• Sideways on IMDb
• Sideways at AllMovie
• Sideways review by Roger Ebert
• The Danish Soul of That Town in Sideways