Sideways

Ahu and I saw this movie last weekend. I had heard that it was one of the best movies of the year. An interesting attraction for me was that wine played a major role in the movie. We saw it at the Marcus Cinema in Elgin. It was definitely one of the best movies I’ve seen in a long time. It contains two or three of the funniest scenes ever. One scene has to do with a discussion around drinking merlot wine. Another scene occurs when one of the characters shows up at a motel door completely naked. The last scene has to do with recovering someone’s “lost” wallet. This last one was so funny I was crying and couldn’t catch my breath.

The movie is a black comedy but has a few good drama moments as well. Another great scene is where Miles and Maya are sitting together on the patio discussing wine and Miles relates his passion for pinot noir grapes. Paul Giamatti, who plays Miles, does an excellent job weaving this metaphor for his life. The character of Jack, played by Thomas Haden Church (from Ned & Stacy fame), is also very memorable.

I was still laughing about the scenes mentioned above for days after seeing this movie. This is a pretty good test to determine if the movie was a really good one. If you’re still laughing about it days later, chances are it was pretty good.