Funny thing:
While attending the umpteenth awards ceremony in honor of "Sideways," its co-writer and director Alexander Payne said to a TV interviewer:
"Even I think its overrated."
Which, I might add, is something I think that one of the Coen brothers said about "The Big Lewbowski." More specifically, that Coen brother said: "Its just not as important to me as it seems to be to other people."
The "overrating" of Sideways came with a torrent of good reviews and a lot of awards (though Oscar was a bit light on it -- still, it won the key Best Adapted Screenplay Award, which is sort of like "The OTHER Best Picture" award.)
We can't believe that Alexander Payne KNEW the film would explode like it did, particularly with the semi-unknown leads in it. (George Clooney wanted to play Jack, but Payne said that Clooney was too well-known, handsome and successful to play Jack -- he used Clooney in his next film, The Descendants -- 7 years later.)
Part of the backlash against Sideways can't be denied as a reason for its success: the sad sack heroes were middle aged MEN, and in a world of teen road trip comedies and chick flicks, middle-aged men simply hadn't been given their due lately. Keep in mind that "The Odd Couple" had been the second highest grossing film of 1968, there has always been an audience(including middle-aged men, middle-aged WOMEN , and young people interested in their future years) for movies about middle-aged men. "Sideways" also went out of its way to give us fully developed middle-aged WOMEN for the men to romance, with broken hearts as the result.
I don't think that "Sideways" is overrated; what I do think is that it is one of those "mystery movies" that turn up from time to time. The story is small-scale, intimate, low key -- with some outrageous comedy elements(the "wallet retrieval" scene) That is grabbed hold of so many people in certain ways reflected a script, actors, scenery, atmosphere, and emotions that came together.
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