Two movies about psychopathy - Sideways and Sliding Doors

[Finduilas495]

Recently I watched two of my all-time favourite movies again, and this time I saw a lot of things I didn't see the first few times around.

In both movies, my impression is that the psychopath gets away with the most rude and careless behaviour, because people believe there must be something good in everybody. They seem to be projecting their own souls and struggles and don't see the lack thereof in the psychopath.

In both movies, the psychopaths are clearly exposed for what they are, but people are still helping them out - that is until the very end, when both main characters appear to have learnt the lesson and finally exclude the predator from their lives.

Here's a quick summary of Sideways and Sliding Doors:

Miles Raymond (Giamatti) is a single divorcé, unpublished writer, wine-aficionado and middle school English teacher, living in San Diego, who takes his soon-to-be-married actor friend and college roommate, Jack Cole (Church), on a week-long road trip through Santa Ynez Valley wine country. Miles wants to drink wine, eat fine food, play golf, enjoy the scenery, and send Jack off in style. However, Jack is more interested in "sowing his wild oats" and having one last sexual fling. Along the way, Miles stops to see his mother for her birthday, and also to steal some cash that she keeps hidden. During dinner it becomes clear that Miles still has strong feelings for his ex-wife, Victoria.

Soon after their arrival in wine country, they encounter Maya (Virginia Madsen), a waitress at Miles' favorite restaurant, and her friend Stephanie (Sandra Oh), a winery employee. Jack quickly arranges a double date. Neither man tells the women about Jack's imminent marriage. Jack embarks on a whirlwind affair with Stephanie while Miles hesitantly tries to connect with Maya. After some fumbling and awkward moments, Miles and Maya sleep together, and he gives her a copy of his unpublished manuscript.

The following day, Miles accidentally lets slip to Maya the fact that Jack is soon to be married. She tells Stephanie, who attacks Jack, breaking his nose. Miles also receives the crushing news that his novel has been rejected yet again, and his agent advises him that it is probably futile to keep resubmitting it. He causes a scene in a winery, drinking the contents of the spittoon in an attempt to drown his sorrows.

Miles hopes that the altercation with Stephanie has quieted Jack's hormonally charged mindset, but Jack meets Cammi, an overweight waitress who recognizes him from his acting work, and he goes home with her. Miles is awakened in the middle of the night by Jack, who has returned to the motel panicked and naked. He breathlessly tells Miles that Cammi's husband caught him in flagrante delicto and he had to run, leaving behind his clothes and a wallet containing irreplaceable, custom-made wedding bands. If he returns home without the rings, he says, his fiancee will dump him, and that will destroy him. He tearfully begs Miles to retrieve the bands. Miles reluctantly agrees to help, sneaking into Cammi's house while she and her husband are having sex. He retrieves the wallet, but is furiously pursued out of the house by Cammi's naked husband, narrowly escaping. As a cover story to explain his broken nose, Jack fakes an accident, runs Miles' car into a tree (and eventually into a ditch). Jack's fiancee and her wealthy family believe the tale and offer him support and sympathy.

At the wedding, Miles encounters his ex-wife, Victoria, who has remained friendly with Jack. She introduces Miles to her new husband and tells him that she is pregnant. Miles, finally forced to face the fact that Victoria will never return to him, skips the reception to go home and get his most prized bottle, a 1961 Château Cheval Blanc. He had purchased the wine so that he and Victoria could drink it together on the 10th anniversary of their wedding; instead, he drinks it alone, unceremoniously, from a foam cup at a fast-food restaurant.

About a month later Miles arrives home to find that Maya has left a message on his answering machine. She thanks him for a letter he wrote to her and says that she needed some time to think about what happened. She also says that she enjoyed his book and thinks that he is an excellent writer, although she expresses some confusion regarding the novel's ending. In particular, she wonders if the central character is based on Miles, and whether the character's father had committed suicide in the end. The message also reveals some details that might help to explain Miles' bleak perspective on the world. She invites him to see her if he ever returns to the wine country. The film ends with Miles traveling back to Santa Ynez Valley and knocking on Maya's door.

If Jack's psychopathic disposition isn't clear before, the scene about the lost wedding bands is a dead give-away, when Jack is begging and pleading for Miles' sympathy in order to regain control over him. I recently read "The Sociopath Next Door", and had a big deja-vu when I read the chapter about identifying a sociopath.

The film follows Helen Quilley (Gwyneth Paltrow), who has just been fired from her public relations job. The plot splits into two parallel universes, based on the two paths her life could take depending on whether she catches a London Underground train or not.

In the timeline in which she makes the train, she meets James (John Hannah) on the underground and they strike up a conversation. She gets home in time to catch her boyfriend Gerry (John Lynch) in bed with his ex-girlfriend Lydia (Jeanne Tripplehorn); she dumps him and moves in with her friend Anna (Zara Turner). James continues to serendipitously pop into Helen's life, cheering her up and encouraging her to start her own public relations firm. She and James fall in love despite Helen's reservations about beginning another relationship so soon after her ugly breakup with Gerry.

In the timeline in which she misses the train, she then hails a taxi instead but a man tries to snatch her handbag. Helen hits her head in the scuffle and goes to hospital. She arrives home late, giving Lydia time to leave. Helen carries on with her life oblivious of Gerry's infidelity, and works part-time jobs to pay bills. Gerry conceals his infidelity and juggles the two women in his life; Lydia even interacts with Helen on several occasions. Helen has a number of conflicts with Gerry, then discovers she's pregnant with his baby, but delays telling him.

In the first timeline, Helen discovers she's pregnant with James' child and goes to see him at his office. She is stunned to learn from James' secretary that he is married. Upset, she disappears. James finds her on a bridge and explains that he was married but is now separated and planning to divorce. He and his soon-to-be ex-wife maintain a cordial relationship for the sake of his sick mother. After she and James declare their love for another, Helen walks out into the road and is hit by a car.

In the second timeline, Helen tells Gerry she has a job interview with an international PR firm. Thinking Helen is at the interview, Gerry sees Lydia, who is also pregnant with his child. While there, the doorbell rings and Lydia tells Gerry to answer it. Helen is there, and is stunned when Lydia tells her she can't do the interview because she's "deciding whether or not to keep your boyfriend's baby." Helen runs and falls down Lydia's staircase.

In both timelines, after her accident she goes to hospital and loses her baby. In the timeline in which she caught the train, she dies in the arms of her newfound love. In the timeline in which she didn't, she recovers and tells Gerry to leave for good. Before waking up, she sees flashes of the other Helen's life.

In the final scene (now taking place solely in the "missed the train" universe), James is leaving the hospital after visiting his mother, and Helen is leaving after ending her relationship with Gerry. Helen drops an earring in the elevator and it is picked up by James. This mirrors the start of the film, where James picks up Helen's earring on the elevator after Helen is fired from her job. Before the doors close, James tells Helen to cheer up, and repeats his line, "You know what the Monty Python boys say..." Helen (who, in the beginning of the film, assumed the rejoinder to be "always look on the bright side of life.") says, " Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition." She and James stare at one another, surprised by her response as the doors close, leaving the audience to speculate upon the outcome.

In this movie, the psychopathic character Gerry always appears to have ways of presenting himself as the victim and seems utterly caught up in wishful thinking. One of my favourite dialogues is when Gerry sits in the pub with his friend Russ, and Russ asks whether Gerry wants his opinion. Gerry in turn asks him "Will I like it?" and Russ replies "Of course not! It will be based on reality!". In another scene, Russ labels Gerry a "morality-free zone".

While in Sideways Jack seems to be mostly hurting himself (he gets beaten up by Stephanie after hurting her feelings, and gets used by Cammi instead of using her as he intended), Gerry's selfish behaviour in Sliding Doors almost kills Helen in one of the timelines. She survives, and ends up a strong young woman.

Both movies make me sad (especially watching Helen's ordeal gets to me every time), but also hopeful. Trying to wake up is painful, but one can hope that the more knowledge one gains, the less painful it gets :/