The male protagonist is a frustrated writer. Although he insists on creating novels, he is always rejected by the publishing house again and again. His wife also divorced him, and he is poor and sees no way out. Only wine tasting can make him feel good. An actor friend of the writer is planning to get married on Saturday, so they decide to go out for a week to mark the end of their single life. Along the way, the writer remains unhappy, calling his ex-wife when he's drunk—he still deeply loves her. This is not the case with the actor. He wants to seize all the free time he has for carnival and indulgence, and one woman after another becomes the prey he chases. The actor keeps trying to persuade his friend to forget his ex-wife and pick himself up and start a new relationship, but the chronic failure in life completely robs the writer of the courage to pursue a new life. In the end, the writer's manuscript was rejected by the publishing house again, the writer's ex-wife married a considerate man, and the writer felt that he had nothing and was a failure in life. In the end, the god of love finally came, the woman he met on the journey sent him an invitation, the writer put on a beautiful shirt and went to her, and a new life began.
The film is very flat, there are no big ups and downs in the plot, everything is on track. It gives the impression that this is the autobiography of the screenwriter or the original creator. The whole film is like a sketch work. Although it does not have gorgeous and delicate colors, it is more expressive. Little people like writers abound in life, middle-aged people with no careers, broken families, poor, and feeling hopeless for themselves. Although the film expresses the above emotions calmly, it is simple and touching. It is written by an introverted male author, which fully shows the true weakness of men's hearts.
The movie is very masculine. I've hardly ever seen a movie with a female protagonist on the same topic. In other words, I haven't seen a female director's work of the same theme. To a certain extent, the film pushes men into a kind of existential dilemma, implying that women have a way out despite the hardships in the same life. Love, new family, school, repositioning yourself in society, etc. Men's expectations of life are very different from women's. Women can choose what they like, but men are more constrained by social recognition, including wealth and career achievement. The hardships of life are more pronounced for men, and they lose more because of it.
The success of this film lies in his depiction of the plight of the little people and the psychology of the characters. When the writer sits on the beach and says: I am like a piece of shit on toilet paper that is discharged to the sea with sewage and garbage, and I am like the glass window of a skyscraper. A fingerprint on it was short and small, so small I couldn't even kill myself. And he left sadly at the actor's wedding. The first thing he did when he got home was to take the best bottle of wine he had collected to a fast food restaurant and drink it up with a pile of junk food. In his opinion, all the precious and treasured things lost their meaning, and he had hoped to open the bottle of wine on a special day. The scene in the fast food restaurant is a relatively climax of the whole movie, and my heart is wet when I see it. He has nothing, and he wastes his most precious things because he feels hopeless.
But in the end, love once again played the role of savior. Is this a kind of comfort to people's hearts? Where is the real redemption? I don't think that's what love can carry. Love acts as a sanctuary, a necessary refuge in our troubled times. But this is not redemption, far from it. The evaluation of self in the depths of human heart is never-ending, and at the same time, it is constantly influenced by the surrounding environment. What is the value has long lost its original meaning.
But no matter what, whether it is redemption or temporary shelter, love is an indispensable thing in life, although it does not mean hope.
View more about Sideways reviews