Grade: A | Genre: Comedy Summary: With the assistance of a superb cast, Payne creates an interesting look at two men clutching for their youth, bucking maturity through the crutch of alcohol and women. Sideways is a highly ambitious film of delicate complexities.

Is Sideways a sly buddy picture, a film for wine lovers or a defining character study? Actually, it's all of the above. How can all of these be accomplished on even footing in the span of a two-hour feature? Leave that to the talents of Alexander Payne. With the assistance of a superb cast, Payne creates an interesting look at two men clutching for their youth, bucking maturity through the crutch of alcohol and women. Sideways is a highly ambitious film of delicate complexities. They are constructed so carefully they could slip right past you should you misplace your attention.

We are first introduced to Miles (Paul Giamatti), an extremely negative, depressed individual who teaches middle school English to float his dream of becoming a novelist. The problem is, though his writing displays measurable talent, his attitude ruthlessly undercuts the confidence he desperately needs to push his work to success. He just can't fathom that things could actually work out for him. Miles has planned a bachelor party retreat for his old college buddy, Jack (Thomas Hayden Church). The plan is to escape to the beautiful southern California wine valley for a week of wine, golf, food and scenery. What he doesn't realize is that Jack has an agenda of his own, completely comprised of one last week of debauchery before the ax falls on his manhood. Jack is an actor who is past his prime, rolling his fledgling success of a role on One Life to Live to parlay voice over work in commercials as he searches for his next series. He is a confident, brash playboy who defines what happens to frat boys once life has instilled them a gut and limited options.

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We meet Mya (Virginia Madsen), waiting tables at the Hitching Post while she pursues her masters degree in horticulture. Mya's love for wine parallels Miles' and the chemistry between them is ever so subtle yet undeniable. After much prodding and finagling by Jack, a double date is squared away with Mya and fellow wine aficionado, Christine (Sandra Oh). Miles is a walking time bomb around Mya, awaiting meltdown. He's still obsessively pinning over the life he had with his ex-wife Victoria, which ended amongst an affair and divorce two years before. He finds out that she got remarried the afternoon of, and you can smell the trouble brewing a vineyard away. He drinks too much, triggering the obstinate depressive to take over, and the next thing we know he's calling up his ex-wife blubbering on about how he misses her and that life isn't the same without her. Victoria can only fidget awkwardly on the other end. It's painful to watch him sinking into these moments because we've all been there. The thing is most of us try to avoid them like the plague. Miles, on the other hand, just charges head long into them once the alcohol has relieved him of his pesky inhibitions. His social awkwardness is just as painful to endure as he tries to allow Mya in to see his scars, yet he just can't admit life could let him be happy. He's constantly thinking ten times more than he should, unconsciously destroying his confidence with each thought.

Another problem with Miles is that he is an alcoholic. Like all alcoholics, his addiction is used to escape life. When he's drowning in the bottle, he isn't forced to think about the great times he shared with Victoria, or why no one wants to publish his page heavy novel. He can just check out and let the demons loose from their cages. Interestingly, we are never told Miles is an alcoholic. This is just one of the many nonverbal queues we absorb along the way that can be credited to Alexander Payne's cunning work.

This is really Payne's film. His script and direction are witty, inventive and fresh. He defines these characters so completely through nonverbal queues and miniscule moments, for instance seeing how low Miles had sunk when he steals money from his mom's hidden stash or when he sits in the fast food restaurant drinking the prized bottle of wine from his collection once life had finally scraped bottom. This script is so deceptively understated and goes down so easily that you're tempted to overlook how complex it is to paint such a genuine picture.

The smaller touches of the film really add so much. The scenery of the California wine valley is breathtaking and you are tempted to hop in the car for an alcohol induced road trip. Payne uses a myriad of scene slicing techniques to give you the perspective of different characters and to jump between different places. The dialog is rich and full. One moment is razor sharp as Miles refuses "to drink any fucking Merlot". The next it is quietly poignant as Miles and Mya sit on the porch discovering one another by beautifully describing what wine means to them. The later is a great moment captured with such feeling. Payne also uses a soft piano soundtrack to sand down the edges of each frame of the picture to add that perfect something to finish the thought off. The man is a master of detail.

Payne's style is becoming one of the most recognizable in Hollywood with consist quality like About Schmidt and Election. Sideways just solidifies it, sampling on the buffet of emotions, to paint a rich portrait of a host of defining characters. They are disparate personalities brought together by a love of wine, trying to find what has meaning and purpose. Miles and Jack are the 40-something version of Road Trip. One is escaping his past, which won't cease haunting his present, while the other braces himself for a future he's not sure how to handle. It's complex, smart and completely compelling. Sideways is simply great filmmaking.

Buy or Rent Sideways Now.

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