Sideways

Last year I read a lot of great reviews of the film 'Sideways'. The Word magazine even went as far as to say that it was the best film of 2005 in their end of year review. So I finally got around to watching it the other day.

Its not exactly gripping viewing is it? After about 50 minutes my wife got bored and gave up. I persevered until the end and would say that it was OK, but certainly no better than that.

Most of the reviews said things like it was full of wonderfully realised characters and perfectly observed character interations, etc. But it wasn't. We never scratch more than the surface of Jack, the second character. Why is he getting married? Why, after the week shown in the film, is he still getting married? All we know is that he's an actor and puts on an act for the whole film. The only time we see through that is when his world has come crashing down and he sobs that he has to get married to Christine - but why?

Also, why are these two men still friends? OK, so they were room-mates at college, but no real explanation is given for their continuing friendship.

All the wine stuff was interesting, but not interesting enough to lift the film up to the level I had been expecting.

Using my usual film ratings system, this film only scores 5/10.