‘Sideways’ heads in the right directions

JOHN DEPKO

Writer/Director Alexander Payne has built his reputation making

critically acclaimed, offbeat films that defy Hollywood formulas. His

excellent screenplays for “About Schmidt” and “Election” attracted

Jack Nicholson and Reese Witherspoon to play lead characters living

the small-time life in Omaha, Neb. In “Sideways,” Payne leaves

Nebraska to set his laser beam sights on Santa Barbara’s wine

country.

Paul Giamatti and Thomas Haden Church play an odd couple of

lovable losers. Giamatti is a dumpy- looking, divorced school teacher

living in a low-rent apartment. His main purpose in life is to

manifest the pretensions of a major wine snob while masking his Woody

Allen mental issues. Church plays a little-known TV actor who is

about to get married but remains addicted to hot sex with new women

on short notice.

Together they take off on a week-long, good-buddy road trip to the

wine country as a final getaway before the marriage. Sandra Oh and

Virginia Madsen are perfectly cast as the two lovely women they hook

up with during their trip. In typical Payne fashion, the two ordinary

men make a few choices that seem only slightly questionable at first.

But centered on alcohol and sex, each choice leads to another strange

twist that propels them into ever more bizarre situations.

This is a rare movie that gets more hysterically funny even as its

quiet moments become more touching and sincere. Amid very comic

developments, there are intimate moments where brief dialogues

between the characters ring so emotionally true they are

heart-stopping. Like fine wine, this whole story starts off quietly

but gets more vibrant, interesting and intoxicating as it goes along.

It is a very grown-up film for sophisticated viewers that deserves

Oscar attention.

* JOHN DEPKO is a Costa Mesa resident and a senior investigator

for the Orange County public defender’s office.