The Rocky Mountain Collegian

The new film from director/screenwriter Alexander Payne ("About Schmidt") is an intelligent and poignant "dramedy" about the ups and downs of life and love. Paul Giamatti ("American Splendor") plays Miles, a middle-aged aspiring writer who convinces his washed-up actor friend Jack (Thomas Haden Church, "Wings") to take a road trip through California's wine country the week before his wedding.

Upon their arrival, the two meet Maya (Virginia Madsen), a waitress at one of Miles' many wine-country haunts and Stephanie (Sandra Oh), one of Maya's friends and a winery bartender. Jack and Stephanie hit it off and are sleeping together before you know it, despite Jack's impending marriage, but Miles still holds a candle for his ex-wife of two years and defies Jack's urgings to hook up with Maya, despite their mutual attraction.

Neither Miles nor Jack is particularly likeable. Near the beginning of the movie, Miles steals a few hundred dollars from his mother, and Jack, of course, cheats on his fiancée throughout the film. But somehow, as an audience member, these actions are somewhat forgivable. Credit probably goes to the performances of the actors. Giamatti's Miles is the perennial underdog, unhappy with his job and his failed attempts at writing and love. He travels through life, experiencing deep valleys and short hills, and makes mistakes the entire way. He is pitiful, but in an endearing way, and we can't help but empathize with how he feels.

Church's Jack is every depraved, horny frat boy that ever existed all rolled into one. As the film progresses, Jack sinks lower and lower into degradation, and he nearly takes Miles with him. His behavior is truly destructive, but he emerges from every sticky situation with only a few scratches. In every group of friends there is a guy like Jack, someone who seems to do everything wrong but always makes a miraculous escape at the last instant and remains unscathed.

These performances help lend truth to the story that unfolds in "Sideways." The characters are not perfect, but they aren't evil, either; they simply are.

The story is really about four characters, though, and the other two are the women. Both Madsen and Oh turn in fantastic performances, turning Maya and Stephanie into flesh and bone. Madsen's Maya is inviting but also vulnerable and cautious, a perfect counterpart to Miles. She seems to be able to understand Miles in a way that he can't. Oh's Stephanie falls for Jack's charm and eventually falls in love with him. When she finds out his secret, her pain and anger leap off the screen, even as she batters him with a motorcycle helmet. The women seem to allow for a sort of redemption of the two men, Maya with a chance for Miles to be happy and Stephanie with a chance for Jack to recognize his mistakes.

What makes this sort of story so effective is the light touch with which Payne and Jim Taylor treat the script. Almost every scene is funny, but always in a genuine, unforced way. Miles and Jack are nearly polar opposites of each other, and watching their personalities bounce off of one another is fascinatingly fun. Giamatti's facial expressions alone have the ability to make every scene uproarious, and Church's Jack can be so clueless about himself and his surroundings that his unflinching faith in himself is hysterical. At the same time, all of the funny moments are well-tempered with reality, which makes each one ring true.

What "Sideways" does best is offer a snapshot of life. There is no sappy Hollywood ending here; a balance between the feel-good and the tragic is struck, and even the conclusion is somewhat inconclusive. It is this authentic picture that makes "Sideways" a straight-up winner.

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