Way back in 2005, right before the Oscars, me and the homie Geoff realized we had seen very few of the films in contention (since then I’ve seen all except “Finding Neverland”). Little did we know we’d be walking into one of those movies that kind of changes your life. Err..I guess now is a good time to say that if you haven’t seen the movie and want to don’t read any further, because I’m going to talk about it in depth.

I’ve bought two copies of that movie, Geoff had the copy I recently watched for about 2 years before I told him to bring it with him this weekend. I hadn’t seen the movie in awhile and I needed to refresh myself.

I used to relate alot to Miles (I mean it’s even my middle name!) but this most recent viewing forced me to change my perspective a bit. For whatever reason I could always sort of convince myself to sort of forget or at least gloss over the part where he stole the money from his mother. I could never do anything like that. Wouldn’t even think about it.

I am however fragile like him, but gradually I’m becoming less of a Pinot Noir and more “hardy”. I’m becoming more and more like Jack in actual fact, something that is somewhat scary to me. Well maybe I’m not becoming like him, but I definitely see where he’s coming from now. Sometimes you just do things, whether it’s uncertainty about the future that drives the decision or just a wreckless streak, whatever the case, some actions defy logic or good sense, but they take place anyway. Jack was a creature of impulse (something that is in my nature/instinct) whereas Miles was a creature of calculation (what I’ve been for most of my life).

Anyway I watched it this time with the commentary featuring Thomas Haden Church and Paul Giamatti (had no idea he was the former MLB Commish’s son). They seemed to have a genuine friendship which explains alot about the chemistry in the movie. Watching it with that in mind kind of gave me “new eyes” to alter my original view of the movie as a whole.

I gave serious thought for the first time that perhaps they were no longer friends after Jack’s wedding. Also maybe Maya wasn’t at that door at the end. It’d fit with Alexander Payne’s other movies to have an ending as such.

Anyway I still love this movie, probably more than before….in retrospect.