TALK ABOUT MOVIES
2005 Talk About Movies
December
November
October
September
July/August
June
May
April
March
February
January
ARTICLES
Little Notes
Letters
Confessions
Roamin' Catholic
Follow Me
Contents © 2005
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.
TALK ABOUT MOVIES
September 2005
SIDEWAYS
Directed by Alexander Payne. Starring Paul Giamatti and Thomas Haden Church, Color, English, 2004.
Ernie: While Miles becomes a better guy over the course of the film, I don't think Jack has had any real change of heart. He's the teflon guy to whom no moral lesson sticks. I suspect you would say Jack's seen what all his sexual esca pades lead to and that heseen that marriage is the only answer. But I think the beautiful wedding scene at the end was a point of irory: this pathetic man-boy has no respect for this wondrous sacrament.
Matthew: That he's something of a pathetic man-boy I won't dispute. But I thought the scene when he broke down in the hotel room was telling. Hours before, he was on his philosophical high-horse: "I know you care about me, Miles, but you just don't understand my plight." Translation: I gots to get mine, and that's just the way it is. But now, he's in the hotel, weeping, and he says, "I know I'm a bad person." Even more telling, he says, "I know I'm nothing without her." [his fiancée] Further, I think he saw more than a broken nose and the threat of death at the end of his sexual road -- I think he finally saw the degradation of adultery. The squalor of the house, the wretchedness of the woman and her husband -- it's what libertinism tends toward. I feel like I'm taking the film at face value.
Ernie: I think Jack's weeping scene is, on face value, a childish tantrum. Who says, 'I know I'm a bad person'? There's a built in excuse for wrong doing in that very statement. A mature adult says, "I know I've done wrong," which entails personal responsibility. To top it off, when Miles goes in to bail him out of trouble, Jack falls asleep. And, ironically, I would cite the same line "I know I'm nothing without her," to support my point. He knows what a lousy piece of crap he is.
Matthew: Who says, "I know I'm a bad person"? A person who's hit bottom, who has looked into the fouled toilet and seen his own reflection there. Yes, Jack falls asleep, yes, he covers up his sin, yes, he fails to truly confront the demon but has Miles do it instead. Conversion does not simply erase a man's old vices. He's got a long way to go. What's changed is now there's hope. Why do you think these two fantastic women take any interest in these two wretched men? Because they are redemptive grace. They offer these men hope for something better than they are. "I know I'm nothing without her," has religious significance. "I know I am nothing without grace" -- what sinner, what man, can say anything else?
Ernie: Wow. What happened to face value?