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Like a fine wine

Sideways gets fuller and more satisfying as it goes, with rich writing befitting its fine performances.

Miles Raymond is a pinot grape. As he explains in Alexander Payne's wonderfully worded road comedy Sideways, the pinot begs for more than the usual attention; it's thin-skinned and easy to damage. More pinots are tossed aside than ever age into fine wine. Miles is only a temperamental bruise away from such insignificance.

Sideways, based on a novel by Rex Pickett that I must read, is full of such comparisons between wine and whining. I don't know much about the nectar of the gods but do know a little about human nature, especially as it unfolds in the movies, seldom as alluringly gradual and ultimately revealing as this. Payne and Jim Taylor adapted the story to their affinity for 1970s filmmaking, when movies that seemed aimless on the surface (Five Easy Pieces, Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, etc.) showed ordinary people to be anything but.

Miles would fit well in those days, proving middle-age crises are timeless. We quickly know who he is; Payne's opening credits economically detail his irresponsibility, his used car income and Rolls-Royce tastes. Clearly this is someone who can't be depended upon. In many movies, that's all Miles would ever be. Not in Sideways. Two hours later, a guy easy to peg is a complex personality, alternately nicer and more obnoxious than we thought he could be.

If there's any justice, this role will make Paul Giamatti's name as familiar to moviegoers as his face, after American Splendor, his first leading role, didn't quite do it. In both films, Giamatti straddles the treacherous gap between playing a loser and someone audiences hope will win. One move too far in either direction would turn off viewers or cheat them. The screenplay is vividly literate, but Giamatti makes the words real.

Sideways follows Miles on a weeklong trip to California's wine country with his buddy, a failing actor named Jack Lopate (Thomas Haden Church, better than anyone could imagine after George of the Jungle). Jack is getting married when they return but feels uncertain, especially after he hooks up with Stephanie (Sandra Oh), whose sexual appetite matches her wine palate. While Jack scores, Miles fumbles his intentions with Maya (Virginia Madsen), a waitress freshly divorced. That makes Sideways sound like a romantic comedy, which it is, but it's so much more.

Payne's movie is less about where Miles and Jack are going than what they'll go through to get there. A detour to visit Miles' mother (Marylouise Burke) is hilarious before suddenly making us despise someone. A golf game devolves into slapstick steeped in genuine anger. Left alone, Miles simmers while Jack frolics. On a double date, he'll crash and burn. One too many telephone rejections from his ex-wife or literary agent, and he'll boil over.

Miles' sole relief from his problems is wine, a subject he understands better than himself. He cherishes the orderliness of the vineyard process, the perfection of a choicely fermented sip. His knowledge of the grape is the only thing that makes him feel superior, or at least equal. Notice the way he caresses a bunch of grapes in one of his lowest moments, or how he romantically recalls his ex-wife's taste in wines. Wine also makes Miles a lousy drunk; the very thing that saves him always creates his need to be saved.

A wine expert such as St. Petersburg Times critic Chris Sherman (see his take on Sideways) can comment on Payne and Taylor's acumen. It sounds good to me, to paraphrase Jack's refrain when he's out of his tasting league. The information goes down smoothly and, like the rest of the screenplay, is full of hints and revelations. Sideways is human comedy of the highest order and lowest profile, a cleanser for film palates soured by special effects and not-so-special screenwriting and acting. A movie like this makes it a very good year.

GRADE: A

DIRECTOR: Alexander Payne

CAST: Paul Giamatti, Thomas Haden Church, Virginia Madsen, Sandra Oh, Marylouise Burke, Jessica Hecht

SCREENPLAY: Alexander Payne, Jim Taylor, based on the novel by Rex Pickett

RATING: R; strong profanity and sexual situations, frontal nudity, alcohol abuse, brief drug abuse

RUNNING TIME: 123 min.