It is this essential tension between their two characters that drives this movie to its rather improbable end - Jack is a larrikin, he casually picks Stephanie up and leads her to believe he's in love with her after a couple of days (about three days before his own marriage) whereas this provokes a moral crisis in Miles. When the thing with Stephanie comes to an end, Jack is all ready to move on the next woman he speaks to, a waitress in a bar who recognizes him from his TV show 20 years earlier. This leads on to a couple of really funny scenes - they are totally unexpected in the context of this movie, so I'd not want to spoil anyone's fun by revealing what happens. They both had the whole theatre erupting in laughter. Not to say the movie as a whole lacks humor - but the sudden intrusion of a couple of slapstick moments into a story which had relied on a more subtle, even cerebral, form of humor adds to the fun.

Meanwhile - Miles. Like all good romances, he makes a good impression on Maya but then blows it completely. There's a brilliant scene at Stephanie's house - Miles and Maya are talking about wine, Maya explains why she's so into wine and ends with her hand on his. Poor Miles just sits there for a bit, then makes a dash out of the room. Returning to Maya, you can just see him standing there plotting what to do - not so much "will she let me kiss her" so much as "is that what is expected of me now", I suspect. Anyway, he goes for it, to get a nice hug and a "it was great to catch up" thing. As the movie came to an end, I was wondering if Payne was going to go out on a limb here and leave his central character in a worse position than at the start of the movie. After all, Jack's shenanigans had made it hard for him to face his friends in wine country and he learns not only that his ex wife is re-marrying but is also pregnant. And Maya is absolutely furious with him for not restraining Jack.

So, the movie is, in a sense, a meditation on friendship - Jack and Miles were college room-mates but, it seems, haven't been in close contact for a while, yet they decide to go away together in this week. Much is revealed about their differences, to the point you start to wonder why they actually spend any time together at all, as each makes the other furious. And yet, their friendship drags them back to each other.