Wonderful character development!

Just what I expected

Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Exceptional casting, storyline, writing, characters with tremendous chemistry

Miles Raymond (Paul Giamatti), and his best friend Jack (Thomas Hayden Church), are two middle aged men who embark on a trip across California's wine country, one week before Jack's wedding.Miles is a divorced, crestfallen, deeply unhappy writer, to whom life has brought little except disappointment, and a deep longing for his ex-wife who is now remarried, and wants nothing to do with him. During this long road trip (the only highlight of which is the wine), Miles anxiously awaits news about whether or not his first novel The Day After Yesterday, is finally going to be published.Jack, meanwhile, has his own agenda...A dyed in the wool womanizer for whom fidelity is not even a concept, Jack has vowed to get Miles (and himself) laid before the end of the week.This means bringing the lovely Maya (Virginia Madsen), and her best friend Stephanie (Sandra Oh) into the picture.While Jack and Stephanie quickly "hit it off" with the handsome Jack misleading his luscious conquest, Miles finds himself feeling more and more attracted to the enigmatic, quizzical Maya who shares his interest in wine, and might (in some strange way) turn out to be his salvation.All four lead actors are excellent.The story is original, funny and sad, with a screenplay which deserves the Academy Award it won.This is a surprising film you'll never see coming.It catches the audience off guard, a rare achievement in Hollywood.Story: A+ Acting: A+ Direction: A+ Visuals: A+Review #114Originally Posted: March 8, 2011.

In my opinion this is the best of Paul Giamatti movies he fit in the role , really adapted with the character like it's his own reality and with the wittingly written screen-play by Alexander Payne oh god that's just awesome ,most conversations of the depressed character have implication give you the weepy/funny feelings simultaneously that's just smart he really deserved the Oscar , the ending is spectacular make you still feel sad with assist of the soundtrack running on the background at the same time gives you hope and make you think about what's going to happen ...i recommend this movie for all drama seekers over there. cheers.

Sideways is a thoughtful, studied, and dryly comic look at two very different kinds of losers. Miles (Giamatti) and Jack (Church), are both approaching middle age with too little to show for it, so they embark on a week-long excursion touring vineyards in Santa Inez, Solvang, and surroundings in lieu of a traditional stag party. Jack, undiscerning, immature, and soon to be married, is still coasting on his waning fame as a television doctor from twenty years ago, while Miles, cynical introvert depressive living down a difficult divorce two years on, awaits the last possible rejection of his unpublished tome of a novel. Surely such polar opposites must really love each other to remain friends this long? Not exactly. You get the sense they are each merely the last best option standing within the social isolation / detritus of their lives. Consequently, the trip they had intended to reaffirm their brotherhood devolves quickly; Miles is just there to get drunk on wine he can't otherwise afford on a middle-school teacher's salary, and Jack's burning urgency is to get laid one or ten last times - at least so they say. Reality is more bittersweet; Jack fears for his freedom while Miles retreats into a pretend world where he's still visiting this beautiful country with his ex-wife. There's a lot to chew on here.And it is beautiful country. The film employs real vineyards, often keeping their real name, interior design, and occasionally staff, as vibrant background. But rest assured, wine tasting is just table dressing here - Sideways is as much about California wine country as Chocolat is about confections. Miles' encyclopedic appreciation for wine is a cover for his depression-fueled alcoholism, while Jack has no interest in the virgin grape beyond the women pouring it. Maya (Madsen), fellow wine nerd, and Stephanie (Oh), pot-smoking single mother, match the men's personalities, but not their failures. They may not be where they want to be in life, but at least they face it with a certain maturity and without lying about their situations. As much as Sideways is a film about mid-life crises (male menopause if you will), it is a film about lying. Miles and Jack are lying to each other, to the women they pick up, and ultimately to themselves from very nearly the first line of dialogue. By the third act things have come to a head, as expected, with no way out but through. In fact, Jack frequently posits great ideas to turn their lives around, but both men are too self-destructive to follow them up.Other aspects of the film match the content. The score is ambient, but not intruding. The editing is occasionally flashy, but never at the expense of plot or dialogue, the camera-work is what cinema verite would look like if the camera were always mounted. Nothing in excess seems to be the motto, and it's a good one considering the introspective quality of the story. Where the closest you get to action is pudgy middle-aged men briskly walking around a driveway, the humor is dry as a domestic syrah, we always know our destination and there are no tears when we get there, then why not let the thing alone to speak for itself? That's what Alexander Payne did and we should be grateful.Sideways is a slice-of-life film, necessarily starting and ending without too much success or failure. It is expected and a bit precarious, but so is real life. It is the film's open-ended nature that makes its bleakness bearable.10 / 10, by turns darkly funny and sad-making