PLOT: A comic drama about two friends who go on a wine country vacation and find forbidden romance while they lose their minds.
Despite its pedigree as the work of writer-director Alexander Payne and collaborator Jim Taylor, Sideways is still a surprise. It screened as a special presentation in this year's Toronto filmfest.
That is because it is just so good, a fine, fresh wine that still jumps out of the bottle fully aged and wonderfully complex, as tasty as a rare Bordeaux after a decade in the cellar.
Part of the pleasure is that the film, deftly co-written by Payne and Taylor (of Election and About Schmidt fame) from the novel by Rex Pickett, initially seems so unassuming. It presents itself as a mere hors d'oeuvre, not the full banquet it turns out to be. Even the silly music we hear suggests frivolity, not substance.
Set primarily in the California wine region of Santa Barbara and environs, the story in Sideways begins in the big city. Two old college chums, who remain unlikely friends still in their middle-aged years, are getting together for a bachelors' vacation in the week before one man's wedding.
The soon-to-be-married guy (Thomas Haden Church, best known as the mechanic on TV's Wings) is a reckless dope and a hopeless womanizer. He can't believe or accept that he is actually going to give up his rogue lifestyle and settle into marriage, even one to a rich and sexy young woman.
The other guy is a failed novelist and desperately bitter divorcee (Paul Giamatti from the brilliant American Splendor). He still clings to the notion that he may reconcile with his ex and settle back into a life of married bliss.
Both men are delusional. Even the trip is absurd. Giamatti's character has one passion in life, one thing he does well: Wine. He is knowledgeable, snobby, but willing to share his enthusiasm. Church could care less. He joins Giamatti on the road to get them both laid -- he hopes.
In wine country, two wonderful women present themselves. Church hooks up with a feisty wine hostess (Canadian star Sandra Oh) at a vineyard. Giamatti has possibilities with a waitress (Virginia Madsen) at his favourite restaurant and winebar. Neither man is honest about what is going on.
What happens as the movie lurches from wine to whine and from bar to bedroom is the stuff of middle-aged angst. The movie says there is happiness lurking -- if you know where to look and how to see it, embrace it, celebrate it.
Payne is an American satirist, and his films -- including Citizen Ruth, the exceptional Election and the vivid dramatic comedy About Schmidt -- probe the American psyche and expose absurdities. But he always illuminates the hope in people's lives, no matter how muddled things get.
To that end, the performances in Sideways are uniformly marvellous. The rumpled, oddball men make themselves appealing flesh-and-blood creatures. Giamatti's sexual love ode to pinot noir is a thing of beauty.
Meanwhile, the mature Madsen is as sensual as ever in her career comeback and Oh is finally getting used more, and properly, in American movies (even if it is her director-husband Payne who is leading the way).
Have a sip of Sideways now -- it will be back at Oscar time.
(This film is rated 18-A)
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