This weekend we finally saw Sideways, something I was really looking forward too. It's gotten great reviews and was nominated for several awards, including Best Screenplay (which it won), Best Director (for Alexander Payne from About Schmidt and Election - one of my favorites), Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Thomas Haden Church from Ned and Stacey and Wings - who did a great job), and Best Supporting Actress (for Virginia Madsen who's done a ton of movies but who I only recognized as one of Frasier's girl friends.

The acting was great, the music was great, the writing was great, the direction was great. the wine was great. The movie was really good. I have to say I was a bit surprised that I didn't like it more than I did, it just didn't suck me in. Don't get me wrong, I did really like it, I just wasn't blown away by it and I certainly didn't think it deserved a best picture nomination.

It's basically a story of two old friends, one of which is getting married (Thomas Hayden Church). He and his buddy, played by Paul Gimatti (from American Splendor) head to the California wine country for a last blast before the wedding. It turns out that Church is a slime ball and wants to get laid one more time before getting married. He and Gimatti meet up with some women and Church gets his way. Gimatti meets Madsen's character and the hit it off.

Things are going well until the truth about the wedding comes out and everything falls apart. Church's girl (Sandra Oh from Under the Tuscan Sun) freaks out and attacks him with a motorcycle helmet and breaks his nose pretty bad - just in time for the wedding.

I would totally recommend it, especially if you like wine (we do like wine but will be the first to admit we don't really know shit about it). While it is really really good, it's not the great film I was expecting.