Sideways
I just watched one of the more hyped small films of the year, Sideways. It is really good, and very funny. But I liked the talky bits even more than the funny bits. Wine and the business of wine-growing is used as a metaphor for life, its wonderful potential and the crushing disappointments that come as a result of high expectations. My favorite description of wine comes from Virginia Madsen's character, who says what she likes about wine is that it's constantly evolving - if you drink a bottle of wine today it will taste different than on any other day you'd decided to open it - and in that sense, a bottle of wine is alive (!). It's a much more optimistic view of wine, and ergo of life, than the character played by Paul Giamatti, whose life is symbolized by a prized '61 bottle of Pinot that he still has not opened, even though the current year is the peak in the life of that wine - after that, it'll just go down hill, slowly, inexorably. His view of life is failure and wasted potential and hence his predominant mood is self-deprecation and melancholy. The great thing about the movie is how the characters bump against each other and how the road trip of two buddies into wine country reveals the ugliness within themselves that each man was trying to escape. Hee. It's always good to think about new perspectives on life; that's what the best movies - and your best friends - gift to you.
posted by Puz @ 1:36 PM
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