Great Scene: “Sideways”

Miles on pinot noir. Maya on the “life of wine”. Subtext abounds!

If one of my students can’t quite grasp the concept of subtext, often I’ll have them read this scene in the movie Sideways (2004). Written by Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor, based on the novel by Rex Pickett, it’s a great script for many reasons, not the least of which is that Payne and Taylor make us care about Miles (Paul Giamatti), the story’s largely unlikable Protagonist.

In this scene, Miles and Maya (Virginia Madsen) have been sharing a few moments alone together. Up to this point, there have been some indirect ‘messages’ each has sent to the other signaling perhaps a mutual romantic interest. And then Maya asks a question:

So what is Miles really talking about? In the External World of this screenplay universe, he’s talking about wine, but in the Internal World he’s talking about — himself. “Pinot needs constant care and attention… only the most patient and nurturing growers can do it… tap into Pinot’s most fragile, delicate qualities… only when someone has taken the time to truly understand its potential… coaxed into its fullest expression… the most haunting and brilliant and subtle and thrilling and ancient.” In that moment, this is Miles’ beatific expression of his own self-image, a misunderstood person, unappreciated novelist, and an unrequited romantic. Watch the scene with that perspective:

Now let’s look at Maya’s monologue to see who she’s really talking about: “It’s a living thing… continues to evolve… actually alive… constantly evolving, gaining complexity.” Again these words resonate about the speaker as Maya works as a waitress, however she’s evolving by taking college courses, learning about wine, and has aspirations about taking that up as a career. But by the end of the scene, she has made an overture to Miles that she is ready to be with him. Here’s her monologue:

In dialogue, subtext is where characters talk about Subject A (in the External World), but mean something about Subject B (in the Internal World). If you find your characters’ dialogue to be too ‘on-the-nose’ or play too much ‘up top’ in scenes, find something completely unrelated to what you want the characters to communicate — washing dishes, changing the oil in the car, playing golf. Give them some bit of business to do — then see what your characters do with that to communicate what they really mean to talk about.

Comment Archive

For more articles in the Great Scene series, go here.