Sideways started to receive tons of recognition when it first came out on a limited basis about a month and a half ago. It is good to see an independent movie to receive so much raves and praises. I started to fall in love with independent movies two years ago when I saw "In the Bedroom", an in-depth description of the lives of a couple after losing their graduate school bound twenty something year old son. Independent movies are made not to please thrill-seeking audience of the entertainment market. Most of the producers and filmmakers make movies for the passion. They make movies with a purpose, not money, but for the love of making it, and to explore and expand it the best they can with sincerity and enthusiasm in mind. Their movies are usually more sophisticated and sensitive. Their goal is not to satisfy audience of the commercial world. They make it to make it well. They usually work with a very small budget (less than a million) and do not expect return from the box office. They are true movies with well developed characters and on which some interesting examinations.

Back to Sideways, this movie examined the life and love approaches of two good friends: Miles and Jack. Both approaching their middle-age, Miles is a shy guy who divorced recently. Jack is a playboy type of guy who was planning to get married in a week. They started off a wine tasting trip up California. Miles is a red wine expert. He took Jack on this trip as a celebration of Jack's final week of bachelorhood.

They ended up bumping into Stephenie and Maya. Jack went well with Stephenie and fell in love with her. Miles had admiration for Maya (for years, he knew her as a waitress in a restaurant he visited many times during wine tasting trips) but was too shy to take steps. It was a contrast between Miles and Jack on their lives and love lives. Jack believed that the trip was for him to seek happiness before he was on his way to be locked for life. Miles was shy and always thinks negative. The story somehow reflected the way they chose to handle their mid-life crises.

The movie was well directed and well acted. The chemistry between Paul Giamatti and Thomas Haden Church was sensational. I was watching this movie in downtown Manhattan in New York City. I realized that most of people in the audience were middle-age. I might be the youngest in the audience. I could feel the entire audience drawn in by the movie at the end.

The movie does not directly relate to me since it deals with older age problems of marriage and divorce. However it lets me understand more about middle-age life and general life approach. Maya, the girl that Miles was fond of, said this in the movie (skip this if you prefer), "I like how wine continues to evolve, like if I open a bottle of wine today, it would taste different than I'd opened it on any other day. A bottle of wine is actually alive." It definitely described life in an interesting way.

This is written on some day in January 2005, in New York City.