.....Everything depends on the acting and the script. It becomes clear very early that in Sideways Payne and co-screenwriter Jim Taylor are exploring a vein we see all to seldom these days in film—the low-key, naturalistic comedy of errant desires and disappointed dreams. The dialogue is natural, and the contrast in temperaments between the two buddies supply us with material for endless frustration, merriment, and confusion. Yet we still find it possible believe that these two—the depressive intellectual and the exuberant dimwit—might actually be friends.
Paul Giametti brings a deft touch to Miles, the lonely divorcee and would-be novelist. He’s become used to things not going his own way, he tries to think of others—though it was perhaps unrealistic to suppose that his buddy Jack would want to attend his mother’s seventieth birthday party on the first night of their long-anticipated trip. For his part, Jack makes it clear early on in the week that he basically wants to get laid—one final fling before he ties the knot. Yet Thomas Haden Church brings such idiocy and charm to the part that we can enjoy all the trouble he’s stirring up even though we’re well aware that things aren’t quite right inside his head. Miles lectures Jack about the disaster he’s about the make of his life—and of course he’s right. Jack lectures his morose buddy about loosening up, living for the moment, turning the page on his depressing past—and it’s good advice too, as far as it goes.
Throughout Sideway wine acts as a focus of activity and conversation. Jack knows nothing about it, though he begins to take a deeper interest once he runs into Stephanie (Sandra Oh) pouring wine at one of their numerous tasting-stops. Miles, on the other hand, is a true connoisseur. He is sensitive to all the nuances that can develop inside the bottle, and he expressed himself with true eloquence on the subject.
The story gets wilder as it progresses, and I’m not going to spoil all the fun by describing things in detail—the car accident, the trouble on the golf course, the party at Stephanie’s house, the missing wallet. The point to be made is that the film is a whole lot of fun—far more loose, natural, witty, and character-driven than Payne’s previous effort, the star-driven but very hit-and-miss About Schmidt.