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Sideways

Moving from Omaha to Santa Barbara wine country, Payne changes the setting but not the themes in his 2004 entry, Sideways. Here, Paul Giamatti stars as the self-tortured protagonist – he is not a character so much as a person that probably lives down the block somewhere; his problems are both painfully real and at times, depressingly humorous. He is on the lonely end of a failed marriage, a failed book deal, and his biggest sense of companionship comes from his expansive knowledge of wine, which he tries to share with his philandering, over-the-hill best friend (played by Thomas Haden Church in a career-reviving role).

Sideways manages to be both sad and realistic and painfully amusing at the same time. As a 22-year-old viewer, it's simultaneously scary and funny to watch these 40-something men do their middle-aged version of what I am doing now. On this road trip, the two of them are trying to get their careers moving, they are trying to get the girls, they are trying to party hard – in short, it sounds more like my senior year of college than Paul Giamatti's mid-life crisis. With this most recent film, Payne corrects for that which I hated about About Schmidt. This is not a melodrama – it is depressing without being boring, it is heartfelt without being heavy handed. Throwing in a dose of farcical humor for good measure (watch for the scene where Thomas Haden Church is forced to run back to his motel sans clothing), Sideways is a much more accomplished entry into Payne's staple category of average American dramedies.

For the fourth straight time, critics found almost no fault in Payne's efforts. Sideway's entered rarified air when it earned a 97% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. As an October release, the film was the early frontrunner in the Oscar race before giving way to Million Dollar Baby's late season momentum. Even still, Sideways earned itself five nominations in categories that matter (Picture, Director, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress, and adapted screenplay) and it won for screenplay.

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