It would be too easy to use wine metaphors to sing the praises of ?Sideways?, the story of two mismatched best friends who spend a week vineyard-hopping along California?s central coast.

That would be simple ? and cute ? and there?s nothing simple about ?Sideways?, although writer-director Alexander Payne makes it all look effortless.

In crafting something seemingly contradictory ? a middle-aged, coming-of-age tale ? the director of ?About Schmidt?, ?Election? and ?Citizen Ruth? offers his most mature, emotionally resonant film yet. It?s his best, and one of the year?s best.

Beautifully written (by Payne and long-time writing partner Jim Taylor) and brilliantly cast, with nuanced performances by all four of its stars, ?Sideways? offers a rare, realistic glimpse at unconditional male friendship.

Based on Rex Pickett?s book of the same name, the film follows the self-serious Miles (Paul Giamatti), a divorced wine lover and wannabe novelist, and party-boy Jack (Thomas Haden Church), a struggling actor, on a road trip from San Diego to the Santa Ynez Valley wine country north of Santa Barbara.

The occasion: Jack, in his early 40s, is finally getting married. And while Miles views the vacation as an opportunity to taste some excellent wine and play a little golf, Jack just wants to live it up one last time before he settles down.

So when they stand at a tasting bar with a couple of freshly poured glasses sitting before them, Miles shoves his entire nose into his and declares airily that he can detect strawberry, asparagus and ?a flutter of, like, a nutty Edam cheese.?

Jack grunts in response: ?Wow. When do we drink it??

Yes, these two are an odd couple (and Miles is definitely the Felix Unger in the equation) but the characters never feel like types. In Miles, Giamatti has created a character who?s a real guy, full of sadness and soured dreams, all of which would come spilling out if it weren?t for the flimsy wall he?s built around himself. And Jack looks like a good boy but he does bad things. He?s so funny and charming, though ? and so obviously insecure beneath the bravado ? that you?ll root for him to get away with everything. (Church, with his weathered good looks, shows much more range than his previous sitcom work on ?Wings? and ?Ned and Stacey? would suggest.)

He has no qualms about cheating on his fiancee with Stephanie (Sandra Oh), a sexy wine pourer who rides a motorcycle and flirts with him brazenly. (And Oh, the former ?Arli$$? co-star, is a fabulous choice for the role: beautiful, cool, funny and tough. She?s also Payne?s wife.)

At the same time, Miles hesitantly pursues some semblance of a fling with Maya (Virginia Madsen), a local waitress who?s also a wine expert.

Although Jack insists ?the chick digs you, man,? Miles can barely talk to her without first killing off a bottle of his beloved pinot noir. When the four of them get together, seemingly nothing happens ? they eat dinner, drink some wine, kiss a little, laugh a lot ? yet all of them are changing. A scene in which Miles and Maya sit on the back porch at Stephanie?s house in the dead of night, talking about what they love about wine, is a prime example. Maya explains quietly that each bottle is a living thing, constantly changing until it reaches its peak and begins its inevitable decline. Then she reaches out and takes Miles? hand. It?s foreplay and a rhapsody at once, and Madsen delivers the speech breathtakingly.

One of the loveliest things about ?Sideways? is that its women are stronger than its men, albeit in a subtle way. The men catch up, though not completely, and Payne has enough faith in his audience to figure out for ourselves how they turn out. One thing that?s clear: Giamatti is a leading man, period.

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