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by Willie Waffle

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Sideways

Every year, one small movie seems to break out with massive critical support to win over moviegoers. Like last year’s Lost in Translation, Sideways seems poised to surprise everyone and grow its support over the long haul. Now, it’s up to movie lovers to find it and buy tickets.

Paul Giamatti stars as Miles - a middle aged, recently divorced writer and school teacher taking his buddy, Jack (Thomas Haden Church), on a weeklong tour of the California wine country. It’s more than a vacation for these two. It’s one last week of bachelorhood for Jack, and the final time they can live the wild life. However, things get complicated as each one helps the other confront mistakes, challenges and problems in their lives.

Will Jack make it to the altar? Will Miles finally make a move on the waitress he has admired for so long? Can each one realize his own failings to become a better man?

Sideways isn’t a movie heavy on plot and structure. It’s a slower moving story and character study that demands the audience pay attention to the nuanced performances, the wonderful dialogue and each character’s big and small revelations. While you might not feel much is going on while watching the movie, Sideways is a better film as you actively engage it, examine the characters, look for the meaning and motivation of what they say and do, and think about what each one is going through.

Co-writer/director Alexander Payne (based on a novel by Rex Pickett) allows the actors to shape the story through their interpretations of the characters, while setting a subtle, laidback tone that allows the issues to grow on us, ferment until they break out to grab our attention and move us with their resolution. While the script is full of great dialogue to shape each character, Giamatti and Church bring them to life in ways that are funny and sad.

Church gets to be the more overt character with the funny lines and wacky situations, but never wanders into ridiculous territory. Years of television comedy have given him great timing, and we know he can be funny, but some of his best moments come when Church shows a darker side to Jack and his big scene towards the end (you’ll know which one, trust me).

Meanwhile, Giamatti gives one of the great performances of 2004. Physically with his eyes and slumped posture, verbally with the tone in his voice and emotionally with his reactions to the hard times Miles has faced, Giamatti shows us how this character is a defeated man. We get to see him go nuts watching his friend with everything get anything he wants and be willing to toss it away, while Miles struggles for the small happiness of having a woman smile at him. Giamatti slowly takes us into the depths of Miles' despair, especially with his heartbreaking speech about pinot grapes, but always finds a way to entertain us as well with some humorous, pretentious analysis of wine, which reveals a little something about the character as well.

Lots of people are going ga-ga over Sideways, but I’m not willing to go that far. A little more structure to the story and a little more action would have helped, but I am picky that way. Still, Sideways is a winner.

3 ½ Waffles (Out Of 4)

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