Sideways Again

Diane!! Thank you!! I get it now, I really do! After reading your "Sideways" comments on your blog and here, I understand now what my problem was with the movie, and I find I'm surprised at exactly what was going on in my head. My problem was that I lost hope for the characters. And this is shocking for anyone who knows me, because I am a relentless optimist, to the point of no doubt being annoying to others sometimes. Most of the time, if you show me that proverbial glass, I'll not only tell you it's half-full, I'll tell you I think I see someone heading this way with a refill pitcher and a bowl of freshly-sliced lemons. But when I watched "Sideways", the characters seemed so real to me, and so very lost, and damaged, that I think I gave up on them. I looked too far beyond the ending of the movie and projected my feeling that Jack would probably fall back into chasing women and destroy his marriage, and that Miles would probably blow things with Maya, and stop writing, and die alone in bitter obscurity. And maybe they would, who knows? But maybe NOT. As you pointed out, the THING --- the big thing I was totally missing! --- is that they were trying. By the end, they were both doing something that scared them --- commitment in Jack's case, and emotional risk-taking in Miles' case. It's that whole "the journey is more important than the destination" idea again, isn't it? I believe that, but I don't always remember it! And forgetting that gets me in trouble sometimes. So thank you to everyone who commented, and in particular thank you to Diane for showing me what I was missing. Now I think that I'll want to watch "Sideways" again someday, and that I'll see it differently, and appreciate it more. On a less philosophical note, it also made me really want to visit California wine country someday! I've never been to that part of the state and it looked gorgeous. Now...seriously...anyone care to take a shot at explaining the ending of "Hedwig and the Angry Inch"???