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SidewaysLike a vintage bottle of wine popped at just the right moment, Alexander Payne's follow-up to About Schmidt is that rarest of things in Hollywood: an enriching, character-based comedy in which every single moment can be savoured. Sideways has no wasted lines, no unnecessary scenes and no extraneous acting: in short it's as exquisitely crafted a film as you could hope for and certainly Payne's best film to date.
Having kicked off his feature film career with the spiky abortion satire Citizen Ruth, followed by Election and About Schmidt, Sideways represents a much warmer side to him. Its comedy is more focussed and its characters more accessible. Consequently it's likely to find favour with those who felt About Schmidt was somewhat overrated.
Like About Schmidt, Sideways locates its humour in a life characterised by disappointment and thwarted ambitions. In this case such experiences belong to Miles (another astounding turn from American Splendor star Paul Giamatti), a neurotic, depressed soul, who teaches high school English but is really a failed novelist. Divorced for two years he's preternaturally depressed and seems to have inured himself against having any happiness or fun. He does, however, love wine; indeed he over-compensates for his other failings and insecurities with his obsessive oenophilia, never missing a chance to wax lyrical about the transcendence of a Pinot Noir or whine about a Merlot.
He gets plenty of opportunity to do this when he treats soon-to-be married best friend Jack (Church) to a week-long trip through the vineyards of California. Jack, a fading soap star with no pretensions about his talent, is relaxed and carefree and just wants to make the most of his craggy good looks to sow the last of his wild oats. Almost immediately hooking up with a sexy single mum (Oh), who works as a pourer at one of the wineries, Jack forces a reluctant Miles to begin a tentative courtship with Maya (Madsen), a local waitress with a similarly extensive knowledge of wine.
Though this may sound like a simple set-up for a run-of-the mill mid-life crisis comedy, Payne's delicately nuanced script (co-adapted from Rex Pickett's novel by regular collaborator Jim Thompson) and careful direction elevate proceedings. His cast rise to the occasion too, nailing the humour, pain, and emotion that the story elicits, often within the space of a few minutes. Just check when Miles blows a perfect opportunity to get together with Maya, then makes things worse by trying to recapture the mood. It's excruciating but that's the film's great strength. Most Hollywood movies would be content to feed us a couple of trite messages about seizing the day, but Payne shows us how difficult it is to actually do this, how hard you have to work and how aware you have to be to recognise which moments, exactly, need seizing.
With Sideways, though, at least Payne makes things easy for you: this is one film you shouldn't let pass you by.
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