Sideways

“In search of wine. In search of women. In search of themselves.”

Miles (Paul Giamatti) is a depressed middle-school teacher in his forties with a novel no publisher wants. He takes his old friend Jack (Thomas Haden Church), a faded actor a week from his wedding, on a road trip through Santa Barbara County wine country. Alexander Payne has them drive from one tasting room to the next, Miles holding a glass up to the window light, Jack already looking past him toward the next bottle.