Award-winning Sideways delivers

Reese Issacson Guest Writer

This just hit me: Alexander Payne is a great filmmaker. After his first three films, the relatively unknown pro-life satire Citizen Ruth, Election, and About Schmidt, he turns out another work of remarkable emotional depth, Sideways.

Based on a novel by Rex Pickett, Sideways is the story of two old friends who travel up to the California wine country for one last hurrah. Miles is a middle school english teacher with a failed marriage and another novel headed down that route, a self-loathing alcoholic oenophile played with brilliant sincerity by Paul Giamatti.

His best friend, Jack (Thomas Haden Church), is a permanently happy actor of sorts (meaning he had a role in a soap opera fifiteen years ago and now does voice-overs for commercials) with a fading-blonde handsomeness. Jack, getting married in one week, is taken on a bachelor party by Miles, who plans to visit the wineries, play gold, and relax with his former college roommate.

On their trip they meet two young women, Maya and Stephanie. Maya (Virgina Madsen), a waitress who Miles knows and maybe even loves from his other excursions to the area, has some touching scenes with Miles. Stephanie, a wine-pourer played by Sandra Oh, enters into a passionate relationship with Jack, who becomes infatuated, whispering words of love to her.

While Sideways won a Golden Globe for Best Comedy (and it does have some very funny scenes), it is by no means a comedy. This is a close, painfully poignant human examination of two men whose lives have not turned out like they expected, an examination of their self-destructive nature and the ability to find hope.

The acting by the four main characters is superb, from Church's portrayal of the irascible Jack to Madsen's touching depiction of Maya to Giamatti's standout performance, the best of the year. Payne's quiet direction reveals every detail of these four lives while reveling in the beautiful scenery of central California.

The screenplay, written by Payne and Jim Taylor, is a piercing, haunting work that constructs four of the most realistic characters the movies have seen in a long time and manages to treat them with love and respect. This subdued film, a masterpiece that works on every level, cuts to the core—it just might be 2004's best film.