Sideways Movie Review: By Adam Mast, ZBoneMan.com

Sideways is a stunning achievement for writer director Alexander Payne, an insightful film maker who fashioned the picture perfect high school expose with Election as well as the funny but ultimately heartbreaking character study About Schmidt.

The new film Sideways is based on a book by Rex Pickett, and features the sensational Paul Giamatti as Miles Raymond, a middle school teacher/wine taster trying to come to grips with a marriage gone bad. As a means to help get on with his life, Miles decides to plan an excursion for he and his pal Jack (a hilariously selfish Thomas Haden Church), a professional actor who, as fate would have it, is getting married and wants one last big hurrah. Rather than throwing the typical bachelor party, Miles opts to take a week long road trip through wine country with his good friend. And naturally, when they arrive at their destination, all sorts of trouble ensues when Jack decides he want’s to sew his wild oats.

Sideways pretty much defies description as it is a fusion of several different styles. It’s a character study, it’s a buddy film, it’s a road movie, it’s a comedy, it’s a drama, and it’s also a tragedy in many ways. Miraculously, Payne weaves all these elements together to form one of the richest film experiences of the year. It’s quite amazing that something that looks like it will be so basic is anything but. It is the little moments in this picture, the tiny nuances that make it so grand.

While it is the considerable talents of Payne that ultimately fashion what the movie becomes, it is also a film about performance. Paul Giamatti is a rising star, and I firmly believe he will become one of the greats. If you’re unfamiliar with his work, check out his dynamic comical chops in Private Parts or be witness to his amazing breakthrough turn in last year’s outstanding American Splendor. In Sideways, he plays the lovable schlub to the absolute hilt. He’s funny and eccentric, but it is his internal pain that really comes across. This is a man who has been beaten down by life, but is fully aware that he himself is mostly to blame for the problems he encounters. Giamatti has so many outstanding moments in this picture it’s hard to single out highlights, but I was most moved by a monologue in which while deftly describing the Pinot grape, he soon realizes that he’s describing himself. An amazing sequence that works it’s magic because of a truly remarkable performance.

Thomas Haden Church is a riot as Jack, a man who appears to be Miles’ polar opposite on the surface. Church takes absolute relish in playing up this character’s bad boy image (odd given that this actor is perhaps best known for his role as the innocent goofball Lowell on TV’s Wings), and to Miles’ dismay (as well as the audience’s) this despicable moron nearly gets away with every inconceivable act he takes part in. But the swiftest trick Church pulls off with this complex role, is that he manages to somehow keep Jack likable. Sure, we know most of what this guy does is wrong, but we never truly hate him.

The most surprising revelation in Sideways comes in the form of a gorgeous and solid Virginia Madsen. While this actress has popped up on screen in everything from Highlander 2 to Candyman, never has she really had the chance to shine. She gets that chance here and makes the most of it. While the film isn’t really about her sweet and independent Maya, and while she doesn’t log in tons of screen time, she’s so effective in her moments that I was constantly thinking of her even when she wasn’t on screen. And given that Maya becomes the twinkle in Miles’ eye, it all makes perfect sense. It would seem odd that she and Giamatti would have such wonderful on-screen chemistry, but they do. They’re absolute dynamite. And watching and listening to Madsen intimately describe why she loves wine so much damn near made me fall in love with her.

No matter how dark or absurd or crazy Sideways became (and it does get dark, absurd, and crazy), it never lost me. Payne allows this film and it’s characters to breathe (if you’ll pardon the pun), and I was immensely entertained by it. I was somewhat shocked by all the crap that Jack gets away with by the end of this movie, but that’s life I suppose. What I really responded to though was Giamatti’s Miles, a man who most of us can relate to. While he’s put through the emotional ringer throughout Sideways, it was nice to see a little light at the end of the tunnel.

Alexander Payne’s latest is an American original and that in itself is an absolute miracle given all the remakes and rehash we’ve seen as of late. And like the beverage that it so eloquently described throughout the film, Sideways will only get better with age.

On a side note, I’d like to give a special shout out to Fox Searchlight Pictures. What a great year they’re having. Sure, they released one of the worst pictures of the year in the form of Johnson Family Vacation but they more than rebounded with the likes of Napoleon Dynamite, Kinsey, I Heart Huckabees, Garden State, and now, Sideways. Cheers to Fox Searchlight!

Grade: A

Adam Mast, ZBoneMan.com