Movie Review

Sideways

Paul Giamatti stars as Miles, a depressed California English teacher stuck in the bowels of a mid-life crisis. His wife divorced him, he lives in a crappy little apartment, and the novel he has spent his life on is unpublished. He is also a fine wine expert prone to getting drunk. His old college roommate Jack (Thomas Haden Church) is just the opposite. He is a struggling actor hitting a high point in his life ? a marriage to a beautiful woman and a definitive non-acting job with her father.

As a bachelor party gift to Jack, Miles has decided to take him on a weeklong tour of the California vineyards. Only Jack is not about to let his one last week of freedom be all about wine. He's horny and willing to do whatever it takes to get one last taste of bachelor sex, and along the way, pull the reluctant Miles back into the relationship world by the bootstraps. Before long he is putting the moves on a wine pourer named Stephanie (Sandra Oh), who has a friend for Miles named Maya (Virginia Madsen).

All great comedians say that comedy comes from pain. This seems to be an angle screenwriter/director Alexander Payne is working from in Sideways. The film is about shattered spirits, broken dreams, low self-esteem, mid-life crisis, and finally, just trying to make sense of it all to get back on the right track. It's probably Alexander Payne's most emotionally effective film to date but most definitely his funniest. Miles and Jack are two different people; Miles is reserved and shy, and Jack is outgoing and in love with his own happiness. And this leads to many good confrontations between the two.

And the addition of wine is an ingenious idea that gains most of the film's high points. There is a cheesy, but still thought-provoking and funny scene where Miles describes the difficulty and the reward of nurturing grapes, basically meaning nurturing himself, followed by Maya talking about how wine gets better with age, which basically is her talking about herself.

There are some sidesplitting, funny laughs here, too, like Jack's description of how he got away from the husband of a woman he tried to bang, and an even funnier scene where Miles must get Jack's wallet back while the woman and her husband are having sex. Golf course male aggression and being drunk in public are also among Payne's comic arsenal, which is surprisingly honest and well connected with the dramatic elements.

Paul Giamatti is becoming very good at the sad-sac role. This is essentially the same performance he gave in American Splendor but it's a very complex one as he combines misery and disappointment with truthful comedy about the human condition. Not many actors could make this character come together so easily but Giamatti has a quality that not many actors have. He isn't an immediately noticeable guy but once you get to know him, or in this case, the character he is playing, you want to root for him in all his middle-aged average-ness.

Thomas Haden Church is the surprise here, though. Who ever thought Lowell from "Wings" would get a part in a big name dramatic comedy? And who would have thought he would be perfect for it? The horny sidekick is always a homerun in a comedy and Church is the perfect blend of self-centered jerk and free sprit with a zest for life.

Virginia Madsen and Sandra Oh are given less meaty roles than the two males, but both are well cast and have good chemistry with Giamatti and Church. All of them make up a film that turns out to be a very compelling, funny and important lesson about life and second chances.

Craig's Grade: B+

A	10.9%
B	41.8%
C	31.8%
D	15.3%
F	0.3%