Heidi and I finally saw Sideways last night on DVD, complete with a glass of wine for Heidi. The wine was an important touch, since this movie is set in the wineries of California.

The two main characters, Miles and Jack, are heading up to the vineyards for a week long wine tasting and golf trip to get away before Jack’s wedding the following Saturday. Miles is an English teacher, divorced and a writer trying to get a book published. He’s dorky and a wine connoisseur. Jack is an actor who once had a role in a major soap opera who now does voiceovers in commercials. Miles is looking forward to the wines and the vineyards. Jack, on the other hand, plans on sleeping with some woman, any woman really. They end up meeting two women and go out with them. The rest of the movie follows them along the week as we watch Miles try to regain his confidence and Jack come to terms with the end of bachelorhood.

The movie is one of those that you watch the whole way through without consciously wondering what happens next. I had no anticipation about how it was going to end but I wasn’t bored either. It’s like watching a baseball or basketball game where you don’t care about either team and where nothing spectacular happens. It has some good moments, it remains competitive throughout, and the better team wins by a little bit in the end. That’s pretty much this movie. I didn’t really identify with the two main characters, didn’t really care about them much, but because they weren’t plastic and were played by good actors, I kept watching and enjoyed it. The ending, while not your typical happy ending, is still one where things turn out alright for Miles and Jack.

It’s a good movie for a quiet evening at home but there’s nothing remarkable enough to make me say, “You have to go see this movie.” And that’s probably the biggest flaw in the whole thing. If you have an opportunity to see this, you should see it. Don’t feel too bad if you miss it, though. It’ll be on cable soon enough and you’ll get to see it there (though the funniest and most surprising moment of the film will be edited out on basic cable).

Rating: 6.5/10