Paperjam

Sideways on DVD

Film // Nick // 29th May 2005

You know I was hoping against hope that this might actually live a little bit up to the hype. There have been any number of 'comedies' that have been toted as 'hilariously subversive' or 'a new take on black humour' or any other such euphemism for 'not very funny at all'. Think Napoleon Dynamite - a film so irritatingly unfunny and lacking in any emotional warmth or engaging characters that I started thinking about doing the ironing. You can do verite to the extreme, and whilst it may be clever, I want some escapism in my entertainment, as I've grown tired of watching a mirror on the more unpleasant members of the plebiscite.

Anyway, that's another review. And this is an entirely other film.

Luckily, this film did deliver.

It is essentially the story of two fairly unattractive characters, who would be cliches in less deft hands;

The ageing actor, just sliding into middle age, was famous for being in a soap but now does voiceovers, clinging onto youth and using his fading fame to get into the sack when he can, on a last fling before he gets married but still retaining a childish joi-de-vivre. (Hmm, Joey from friends?)

The failed novelist-come-school teacher, depressed after the breakdown of his marriage and unwilling to engage in life, his only joy from an anorak interest in fine wine. (Hmm. Michael Douglas in The Wonder Boys?)

Throw in a road trip with chance encounters, possibly an escaped zoo animal or 'tart with a heart' and much hilarity ensues. You can imagine.

However..

This is a grower. The relationship between the pair strikes the right balance between people who are friends because of history rather than common bonds, but are friends nonetheless. It is about the understanding between them, and what they can learn, or just simply decide to accept about each other.

Paul Giamatti plays the novelist / teacher / depressive Miles with an impressive degree of subtlety, unlike many gurning "I'm so unhappy" faces we normally see, by flitting between moments of enthusiasm and joy (engaging the would-be love interest Maya in their mutual interest), to moments of social inadequacy or just curling up into his shell in moments - to such a degree that I could empathise with that collapsing self-confidence.
Thomas Hayden Church plays the jack-the-lad Jack, though a morally dubious character, with enough humanity to make you hear his own internal monologue - though for most of the film this is saying 'what the hell? let's go for it'. You can still understand his genuine excitement at a new relationship at a basic hormonal level.

Sideways: "Wine", "Delivers"

There isn't a lot of point in describing the arc of the plot or the final denouement, as I don't think this is the point of the film. Does Miles get the girl? Does Jack marry his bride? Ultimately these things don't matter as you are drawn in by how they will deal with each others' behaviour, knowing that they need each other as they both have an innate inability to be honest with themselves, so are brutally honest reciprocally, yet when pushed will support each other to the end.

Would you break into a trailer-trash home to get a wallet back for a friend. When that friend has just had to run from the house naked having being caught in flagrante delicto with the owners wife. Whilst said owner and wife were having sex. In the same room as the wallet. Now there's friendship.

There are also some very funny moments, which are made more poignant by the bitter sweet point of view from which the film sees its characters. Lines such as Miles' description of a wine as 'Quaffable, but far from transcendent' sum up the wonderfully written throwaway quips, the insular interests and the characters' view of life.

This is not the perfect film the awards and reviews might have you believe. There are the odd jarring points - notably Jack's breakdown when he believes he may have lost his chance of a happy marriage, you aren't sure whether it is just an act to get Miles to help him - and the fate of Jack's extra-pre-marital paramour at the end is to disappear into plot oblivion. However being generous this may be quite deliberate. These intentions and the way people drop in and out of lives are the way life is.

I did come away from this thinking, what a good film. And you can't say more than that with pap we normally get.

If liked this try;

The Straight Story - David Lynch makes a film with more humanity in its little finger than the entire population of Hollywood has. Or ever had. No weirdness either, for a change.
Before Sunset - 'Sequel' to Before Sunrise, ten years later. A film that is a conversation between two people who are working out whether they should be together. This is a film to fall in love to. Plus Julie Delpy is a babe.
Lost in Translation - Mood piece on dislocation and the need for contact. Bill Murray at his best. Plus Scarlett Johansson in her knickers.
Monsoon Wedding - More of a 'happy' film, but beautiful in look and feel and you will leave elevated.