“Sideways” is one of the best films of the year, although it’s hard to know how to describe it. It’s either a slapstick comedy with melancholy overtones or a serious human story with comic interludes.
It’s also about wine.
Like the previous films by director Alexander Payne, “Election” and “About Schmidt,” this movie is all the better for not being quite pin-downable. It unrolls like a good unpredictable road trip.
And it is a road trip, in part. Two aging buddies take off for a week in the Santa Barbara wine country, a final bachelor jaunt before one of them gets married. They are opposites, but they have that weird inexplicable bond that comes from knowing somebody from an early age -college, in this case.
Miles (Paul Giamatti) is an amateur wine expert and full-time pessimist. He’s a schoolteacher, but he’s waiting to hear back from a publisher about his novel. He’s still miserable over a divorce two years earlier.
Jack (Thomas Haden Church) is a former soap opera actor who mostly does commercial voiceovers. He’s the guy getting married, and he’s on this trip to get schooled in wine – but also to have a last fling before putting on the ball and chain.
In the course of the week, the guys do indeed meet a couple of women. Free-spirited Jack hooks up with a winery worker named Stephanie (Sandra Oh), without mentioning that he is getting married in a few days.
Miles draws the attention of a sweet, sad waitress, Maya (Virginia Madsen), who works at his favorite restaurant in the wine country. Like Miles, she speaks passionately about wine, in a tender scene when the two of them touch a mutual chord. Naturally, Miles is too depressed to really respond to her.
Many other things happen during the week, including some wild misadventures. Much wine is drunk and talked about. (If you’re a wine buff, this movie is fun to listen to, and if you’re not, it will make you thirsty.)
More importantly, “Sideways” is about yearning, and the mysteries of friendship, and about the lies we tell ourselves in order to keep going. There’s a great scene where Jack, suddenly seized by his fling with Stephanie, fantasizes to Miles about giving up everything and moving to the wine country and starting up their own winery. And Miles, for his part, dreams of being a novelist and re-uniting with his wife. These guys are foolish, but they’re human.
Both men are maddening, funny, and fully realized characters. Paul Giamatti, who triumphed last year in “American Splendor,” is irascible and heartbreaking as Miles. Thomas Haden Church, who did the sitcom “Wings” and some amusing supporting parts in movies, has by far the best role of his career as Jack. He never tries to rise above his boorish, playful character.
Whenever Sandra Oh is in a movie, I always seem to say she’s always good, and she is, again. The near-miraculous performance here is given by that luminous blonde, Virginia Madsen, who’s made dozens of mediocre movies since emerging as an ’80s starlet. Her warmth and intelligence make Maya by far the most appealing person in the picture.
Payne and co-writer Jim Taylor (adapting a novel by Rex Pickett) have a real appreciation for everyday American places – the strip of highway that connects a motel to a restaurant, the complimentary continental breakfast in a motel lobby. This is a film full of mature observations and small victories. It’s ready to drink.
Paul Giamatti and Thomas Haden Church star in “Sideways.”
“Sideways” HHHH
Lovely: Two old friends road-trip for a week in the Santa Barbara wine country, sampling vintages and meeting women. This melancholy comedy is full of keen observations, good wine talk and some slapstick, and it’s beautifully acted by a cast led by Paul Giamatti and Thomas Haden Church.
Rated: R rating is for language, nudity.
Now showing: tk
“Sideways” HHHH
Lovely: Two old friends road-trip for a week in the Santa Barbara wine country, sampling vintages and meeting women. This melancholy comedy is full of keen observations, good wine talk and some slapstick, and it’s beautifully acted by a cast led by Paul Giamatti and Thomas Haden Church.
Rated: R rating is for language, nudity.
Now showing: Neptune, Uptown.
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