not horrible nor great

Good movie but grossly overrated

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Miles Raymond (Paul Giamatti), and his best friend Jack (Thomas Hayden Church), are two middle aged men who embark on a trip across California's wine country, one week before Jack's wedding.Miles is a divorced, crestfallen, deeply unhappy writer, to whom life has brought little except disappointment, and a deep longing for his ex-wife who is now remarried, and wants nothing to do with him. During this long road trip (the only highlight of which is the wine), Miles anxiously awaits news about whether or not his first novel The Day After Yesterday, is finally going to be published.Jack, meanwhile, has his own agenda...A dyed in the wool womanizer for whom fidelity is not even a concept, Jack has vowed to get Miles (and himself) laid before the end of the week.This means bringing the lovely Maya (Virginia Madsen), and her best friend Stephanie (Sandra Oh) into the picture.While Jack and Stephanie quickly "hit it off" with the handsome Jack misleading his luscious conquest, Miles finds himself feeling more and more attracted to the enigmatic, quizzical Maya who shares his interest in wine, and might (in some strange way) turn out to be his salvation.All four lead actors are excellent.The story is original, funny and sad, with a screenplay which deserves the Academy Award it won.This is a surprising film you'll never see coming.It catches the audience off guard, a rare achievement in Hollywood.Story: A+ Acting: A+ Direction: A+ Visuals: A+Review #114Originally Posted: March 8, 2011.

Absolute feel-good movie. So natural and easy to watch. Excellent characters. One of my favorite movies with great value compared to its low budget... A perfect blend of sorrow and joy; superficial and thoughtful.

I decided to watch this movie because the plot description for it in many ways reminded me of one of my favorite movies, the 1973 "Your Three Minutes Are Up". There are indeed some remarkable similarities, making me wonder if the filmmakers (or author of the novel the screenplay is based on) saw the earlier film. But whether or not the 1973 movie was an inspiration, this newer movie does manage to stand up well on its own. Advertised as a comedy-drama, there are some hilarious moments here and there, though the humor for the most part is delivered in a way that is more low key - but realistic. The drama portion of the movie is also for the most part delivered in a believable manner. Interestingly, it depicts the two leads as being not always likable - Giamatti's character steals, lies, and gets drunk, and Church's character lies and cheats on his fiancé. But all the same, they are interesting characters to observe; you keep watching in part to see if they will smarten up or dig their own graves. If there's one complaint I have about the movie, it is its length. At over two hours, it runs a little too long, though I will admit I was never bored at any moment. A movie well deserving of all its critical acclaim.

Where this easily could've just been a vain pseudo-intellectual production of intellectual masturbation for two hours with no plot, it actually surprises and has real substance to it.First of all, Paul Giamatti is excellent. He isn't 'very good', he's excellent. The opinion is not overblown, he simply acts every single moment out like it was totally real, but I mean, right down to the unimportant eye movement, eyebrow positioning...he conveys all the impressions that were so important for the lead character to do, throughout the whole film. This isn't a case of the lead actor carrying the film, as the film is very good in its own right, it's a matter of having picked exactly, but I mean exactly the right guy for the right job.They all do well, and Virginia Madsen has more to her ability than this mere role, but she plays it well, every actor delivers the right performance. Haden Church also good.I'll get it out of the way that the film is very well structured, not once do you get bored or complacent with it, it manages its tension superbly well, very good tempo and the events fit their place just well, not a scene too many...so as a more general commentary about the film beyond the technical/cinematographic aspects, this film does really well at being about a pretty uninteresting story really, a pretty used up topic, and doing it in a very particular way which itself brings meaning and purpose about. Not so many films have that flavor, their own atmosphere, their own scent. This one has that. You follow the adventure like you're there, in there, not like you're behind some computer screen watching actors play roles. The details depicted in this film with regards to relationship, to things brewing in one's mind...are so very realistic and subtle. The film gets a hold of you, and although there's plenty of immoral happening in the story, there are also meaningful wiser choices and an actual moral ultimately, one that spread its buds throughout the whole film and observes full bloom at the end in a very classy way (classy, like the rest of it).8.5/10.