One last point to make is about the dialogue - there was plenty of it, a lot of it was very smart, parts of it were very angry. In fact, I was reminded of Richard Linklater - not just his movie Tape, where the three central characters simply talk their way through the movie without ever leaving the room, but also his Before Sunrise and Sunset. One difference is that in those movies we actually get to see the characters talk their way into their relationship - Payne gets to a certain point and then fades away from the conversation. One key element to Miles and Maya's recognition of each other is their joint obsession over wine - they have "first bottle", "best grape" and other stories to share with each other. In fact, I did wonder if Miles' reason for his preference for the Pinot grape was a key to his character - he said it was such a difficult grape to get right, needed such special conditions to allow it to be fully majestic that anyone who grows it must really care about what they were doing - unlike Cabernet (Jack?) which could grow anywhere. Of course, they had other reasons to appeal to each other: both had been wounded in relationships recently, both were interested in avoiding fakery, both were edgy about getting involved ever again. The portrayal of their tentative approach to each other was spot on and a nice contrast to Jack's immediate latching on to Sandra - within about an hour of them meeting, Miles and Maya are mutually embarrassedly confronted with the sounds of them having sex.

Oh, and then there was his novel - people just don't want to read challenging books any more, so while it might be a fabulous work, it would be too hard to find a market for it (shades of Gaddis?).

(Dir. Alexander Payne; Thomas Hayden Church as Jack, Paul Giamatti as Miles, Virginia Madsen as Maya and Sandra Oh as Stephanie, based on the book Sideways by Rex Pickett)