With the ceremony just a couple of weeks behind us, the 2006 Oscars are so old news. And what to say about those of 2005. I wouldn’t even dare bring them up, had they not included what became the  wine motion picture of recent history: Alexander Payne’s Sideways (2004).  At the time, American audiences and critics alike asked, is it a “wonderful new movie” or the “most overrated film of the year?” Most critics agreed with the former, awarding Sideways the Best Picture in the Golden Globe Awards and Best Adapted Screenplay in the Oscars. But long after those awards were forgotten, there are still those wine-loving, movie-going skeptics who continue to wonder and argue over that question at the mere mention of the word Sideways.

Yes, we can all agree the movie offers us a few breathtaking shots of California’s central coast’s wine growing region. Yes, there are a few cheap laughs. Yes, wine is the main character. And yes, as a result of this movie, Pinot Noir became everyone’s favourite in restaurants and on Thanksgiving tables.

As is the case with chick flicks (think Pretty Woman, The Break Up, Fried Green Tomatoes, etc.), the perception of Sideways seems destined to be divided along gender lines. Most men, movie critics included, will find in this film something that they can relate to – whether their fantasies to escape the mundane daily routine, or drinking with a buddy (wine, mind you, not beer) or learning to live with their failed aspirations or chasing women who “serve” them in restaurants and wineries. They will see the womanising, free-spirited Jack (Thomas Haden Church) as their ultra-ego, a man they were before they got married or the man they want to be now that they are. In Miles (Paul Giamatti), they will see the dark side of their own failure to make that job promotion or move on from some failed relationship, or their attempts to drown the past by indulging in alcohol, golf games and Barely Legal magazines. The female characters of the movie will prove satisfying, even though (or precisely because?) they remain one-dimensional – Stephanie (Sandra Oh) as a sexy vixen with a motorcycle who promised adventure and “animal sex,” and the waitress Maya (Virginia Madsen) as an ultimate nice-girl-you-don’t-want-to-date-but-might-one-day-marry if no one better comes along.

What women will see, on the other hand, is a predictable tale of male melodrama with too many one-liners and not enough memorable experiences (the one lasting impression of Maya’s “wine is alive” description aside). In Maya, they might see their desperate, but smart and witty 30-something single friend, who now dates on E-harmony, while in Stephanie they will only see an irresponsible mother (who lets a drunk stranger put their young daughter to bed, anyway?). They will see Jack as an a**hole with no redeemable qualities, a generic character whom they recognise from college parties and dive bars. In Miles’ depression, bad posture and sulking face, they will see their brothers, fathers or 30-something single friends who replaced all their rock star or literary aspirations with lifeless office jobs. Female viewers will forgive Miles for putting his friendship over honesty because he is endearing. They will cheer him on because he is inherently “good” and he really really tries (he wrote a 700 page novel, his divorce leaves him heartbroken and vulnerable, he leaves apologetic messages and drives 200 miles to show up at a woman’s door). They will cheer him on precisely because he reminds them of their brothers, fathers or 30-something single friends, but as he knocks on Maya’s door at the end of the movie, they will know that he will never make her happy. And so, this wine-induce d*** flick ends, before the reality sets in.