Film review: Sideways (15)

ONE sees the glass as half full, the other as half empty, but as this bizarre couple tour California's wine country, they create an intoxicating comedy on the hangover of middle age.

Miles is downbeat and saggy, nobody wants his long-winded novel and he's divorced, hard-up, and stuck in a teaching job.

He's bound by the ties of time to his old college roommate, Jack, an irrepressible small-time TV actor who is soon to marry into suburban boredom.

Two middle-aged men wondering where it all went, they set off for a stag week tour of California's wine country, where whiney Miles flexes his extensive learning on wine, and Jack chases anything in a skirt.

He zips about like a college freshman, his one aim before it all ends at the wedding is to party and to get himself, and Miles, totally laid.

The improbable pair fall in with wine workers Maya (a reliable Madsen) and Stephanie (a spritely Oh) and the four begin a teenage-like dance that threatens futures and friendships.

This Oscar-nominated work starts off gently, strolling along to a lite-jazz beat, pausing to savour the peaks of a hilarious script. But as questions emerge and the stakes are raised it becomes mercilessly addictive.

Giamatti has been a favourite since American Splendor, and his portrayal of a 'loser' is similarly refined, his delivery of sour lines funny but sad. And movie newcomer Haden Church is a real find, making Jack vulnerable and likeable.

The many bottles of wine become a metaphor for life, and in turn this film.

Colourful and full-bodied, with strong, smokey overtones of friendship and spicy comic highlights, Sideways dances on the palate and swirls the senses. Pour me another.

Mono rating: nine out of ten.