Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by Bulkington (A) on February 03, 2005 at 10:19:15

In Reply to: Gritsman: I care not if many eat shit and call it paté, posted by tinear on February 2, 2005 at 17:42:05:

No offense, but did the hurt strike you at home in any way? In response to just this kind of criticism of his character, a friend of mine observed that "film critics don't suffer yuppies lightly, not especially yuppie film critics."

Reality check: if you think that chick would have called him back after that self-serving, whining, self-lacerating and self-pitying message....well, go for it.

This comment baffles the hell out of me. Do you live your life in a John Wayne movie? Or a Rumsfeld press conference? Self-serving? Hardly. Sincere, deeply regretful, and heartbroken is more like it. Self-pitying? Well, sure. I'm not sure whether to congratulate or pity you for the apparently square-jawed, unscarred emtional life from which you're criticizing Giamatti's character.

I don't understand why guys like to see such jerks end up with babes (blonde, smart, and with a SERIOUS rack) when it's so out of touch w/reality. Wait a mintute....now I understand.

A-haaa. Ha ha. I seee. Yes, I'll admit that Giamatti was pretty well outclassed by her in terms of physical beauty--though I happen to think blondes and SERIOUS racks are grossly overrated, so maybe I think he's maybe a tad less outclassed than you do. But there was more to his character than this broad tarring of "jerk," (though that's not to deny he was a jerk) and I think the chemistry between him and her was very convincingly pulled off.

Payne's films are refreshing for their deeply flawed "heroes." I read recently . . . where did I read this? Oh. I was reading Harold Bloom's chapter on Ibsen in The Western Canon, and there he cites a critic who refers to Ibsen's characters as instancing the truism that most people's virtues are implicated in their faults. The flipside to this, which I think is no less true, is that most people's virtues are indebted to their faults. I think Giamatti's character fits this bill. His faults just happened to be more apparent for his being at a decidedly low point in his life (still carying a torch for his ex-wife, unable to get published, deeply disappointed, yes, self-pitying, etc.), sunk all the lower by his regretful betrayal of a woman who looks to be a fresh turn of fortune for him.

Also, while I agree that as a crafted film Sideways leaves much to be desired, and that it did have its share of over-the-top moments (the retrieval of the wallet, however funny, I could have done without), I think it was very self-consciously flirting with some of its sylistic cliches. It also has what is in my limited experience the best depiction of drunkenness in the history of film.