Sideways

2004 • 127 minutes

About this movie

The misadventures begin when Miles (Paul Giamatti), an un-recovered divorcé and would-be novelist with a wine fixation, decides to gift old college buddy and washed-up actor Jack (Thomas Haden Church) with a celebratory trip to the vineyards of the Santa Ynez Valley the week before Jack's wedding. The two couldn't be an odder couple. Jack is an over-sexed charmer; Miles is a sad-sack worrier. Jack is looking for his "last taste of freedom"; Miles just wants to taste perfection in a bottle. Jack is fine with cheap Merlot; Miles pines for the elusive, perfect Pinot. Indeed, the only thing they seem to share in common is the same heady mix of failed ambitions and fading youth. And yet, as they make their way up the coast, Miles and Jack soon find themselves drowning in wine and women. Both men careen dangerously and comically toward mid-life crises. Now, the wedding approaches and with it the certainty that Miles and Jack won't make it back to Los Angeles unscathed or unchanged...if they get back there at all.

Ratings and reviews

This movie did not age well in that the male leads are total d*cks. I would like to give Sandra Oh's character credit for breaking that guy's nose. I saw it in theaters when it came out and now it has clearly become tone deaf to anything happening in our culture. If you watch this and have any soul.....good luck. (I gave an extra star just for the Saab).

Movie more serious than "The Hangover." The rough looking Tow Truck Driver bf, is in Porn. Another male bashing movie with, "men as lost little boys, or misogynist jerks!" Women are hero's or virtuous dispensers of justice(Sandra Oh).

Great actors fitting well here. The setting is great to see. You can actually go to these places and experience the wine and the people. You continuously root for the lead and wonder why he hangs out with the has been actor. Very good story, well worth watching several times over.