Miles, who loves wine tasting, is a middle-aged language teacher. He is short and slightly fat. A novel with some autobiographical touches has been submitted to the publishing house, but it has not yet been published. In this bald man, the setting of waste wood is actually very obvious. He was divorced, lived alone, was late for appointments, was always in a hurry, embarrassed, and with his age, he wasn't cute at all, at best it was funny.
And his friend Jack is an outdated Hollywood star who is no longer old but still charming. He has an impressive screen image and a villa. He is not interested in wine tasting. What he wants is only here. One or more shots with a strange woman on the last single of the week.
The entire film, at the casual pace of drinking and driving with Jack and Miles, lays out a slightly filtered truth about the world. The triviality of life, helplessness, shattered dreams, dignified disintegration, and the spread of failure are all in this film, illuminated by the golden sunshine of Santa Barbara, which is real and disappointing. In other words, it is under such sunshine, wrapped in the leisure and comfort of travel, that those skin-to-skin weakness and fragility appear so sincere.
The old star Jack, whose career was stagnant and finally settled down, must sleep with a strange woman every night for these five days. This is the only goal of his trip, a game that he must win with all his passion and sweat. So much so that after he was forced to end his brief relationship with the winery sales Stephanie because of his lies, he still relied on his signature charm to enter the house of a fat waitress with a husband. You must consume all your unstable emotions before entering marriage, you must gain achievement and comfort in stimulating sex with a strange woman, and you must escape from the next step-by-step married life in the gentle village. Jack, who was far more successful than Miles, was actually just as scared. And when he was beaten out of the house by his hostess husband and cried and asked Miles to help him retrieve the wallet with the engagement ring in it, we saw the vulnerability and fear that existed in him at the same time. He is afraid of entering an orderly life, and even more afraid of being abandoned by an orderly life. Maybe he really understood at that moment that a beautiful wife and a stable family can give him what he values most. And his good friend, the failed Miles, ended up getting nothing after a series of joys and disappointments.
Miles was a loser, a hesitant coward. But the hidden sincerity and sensitivity in his silent or flickering words were just as much a part of him. He wrote an autobiographical book, but he was afraid to inquire whether the publisher could publish it. And perhaps it was because of his cowardice and cowardice, sensitivity and hesitation that he lost everything. He still loves his ex-wife after the divorce, but because he can't stand the pressure of his ex-wife's perfection, he has an affair, which leads to the divorce. He was so moving when he told why he liked Pinot noir grapes, but he never dared to ask Maya to start a date. He lives in the gap between himself and life, his eyes are dim and addicted, he can't move forward, he can only rely on his inertia to live.
At the end of the film, Miles drinks his treasured bottle of 1961 White Colt from a plastic cup at Burger King. His best friend got married, his ex-wife got engaged, he broke up with Maya, and after all the travel and excitement, he found that he really didn't get anywhere.
When talking to Maya about this bottle of wine, Maya said, '61 is the best time to drink, right? At least that's what I read. Miles said, yes, I know. Maya asked, maybe it's almost expired, what are you waiting for? He said, I don't know, wait for a suitable day and come with someone special. I wanted to celebrate my tenth wedding anniversary. Then they talked about something else and didn't mention the bottle again.
After returning, he drank the bottle of wine hastily, because he felt that the moment, the most beautiful moment, would never come again.
The scene where Miles eats is so ordinary, like every piece of crap at Burger King, and what he drank was the little bits of his life in his 40s, success, dreams, and golden stuff.
This is the usual disappointment, flowing in each of our lives, so heavy that although it often happens in the most lively places, no one sees it.
At the end of the film, Maya left a message on the phone saying, I have finished reading the novel you wrote, such a beautiful novel, who cares whether it is published or not? The knocking hand that Miles freezes at the end secretly opens up another possibility of life.
Still have hope.
View more about Sideways reviews
