Sideways (2004)

Genre: Drama/Comedy/Romance

Starring: Paul Giamatti, Thomas Haden Church, Virginia Madsen, Sandra Oh

When two friends in their forties decide to tour Santa Barbara and visit various vineyards and enjoy the wine. Miles (Giamatti) is an English teacher, aspiring writer who hasn't been able to do anything big, divorced, hasn't been able to get over his ex-wife, depressed and a wine aficionado. Jack (Church) is a small-time actor whose career boasts of a supporting role in a TV soap and is now voice-over artists who is about to get married. Miles is an introvert who wants to spend the trip tasting wine, driving around, playing golf and relaxing. Jack, on the other hand, is more interested in having one last sexual fling before he gets married and this constantly leads to disagreements between the two friends on what they should be doing. Maya (Madsen) is a waitress in a popular restaurant that Miles frequents, and after being pushed by Jack, is forced to make a move on her. Jack, meanwhile, gets associated with Stephanie (Oh) who works at a winery and the duo have a healthy sexual encounter. The movie brings out the relationship between the two friends, their differences, similarities, disagreements and agreements. They fight and hate each other but yet stand by each other during tough times. The movie is not for everyone and comprises of subtle urban humour and takes it's own pace in moving onwards. The performances are splendid and the movie has won many accolades at various awards functions due to this. A decent one-time watch movie provided you can live with the slow plot.

Thumbs up: Fabulous performances

Thumbs down: A bit slow to move on

Rating: 7.1/10