Sideways

From Alexander Payne, the director who gave us ABOUT SCHMIDT, comes yet another thoroughly depressing look at life in it's later stages and I have to tell you I did not like this film at all. This is not to say it's a bad piece of work but I just find it too hard on a personal level to watch characters such as the ones presented here go through the mundane torture of existing. I also have a problem with this film in that it inspired a shit-load of wine snobs to come out of their linen closets and annoy the crap out of the world at large. Still, it is amazing how the two male leads, played by Paul Giamatti and Thomas Haden Church, end up being likable in the end considering they are absolute despicable human beings and this is a testament to Payne's skill as a craftsman. Virginia Madsen and Sandrah Oh round out the overall high calibre of performance and while this one may not to everybody's taste it certainly warrants a cursory viewing.