Starring: Paul Giamatti,Thomas Haden Church, Virginia Madsen

Released: 4^th Feb 2005

Cert: 15

Miles (Giamatti) is Jack’s (Haden Church) best man and in the week before the wedding they decided to take a long trip up into the Californian mountains with the intention of drinking some fine wine and playing a spot of golf.

Well, that was the original intention. Miles has been divorced for two years and still hasn’t got over it whilst Jack is having commitment doubts so wants to have one last blow-out (figuratively, literally and sexually) and get Miles back into the ‘dating’ game.

My first impression, based on the trailer, was that this was going to be a male mid-life-crisis version of American Pie. How wrong could one person be?

Dull, dull, dull, amusing, dull, funny, dull, dull would be my interest summary.

I t’s probably absolutely hilarious to a wine aficionado as that’s the focus of most of the dialogue, plot, set pieces, humour, character juxtaposition, er, well all of the film really apart from the romantic dalliances. And don’t misunderstand me by thinking that they just drink a lot of wine, oh no, each glass is critically scrutinized to an absolutely anal level.

Thus said, the two men don’t come across as particularly sympathetic characters; Miles is a naval gazer and Jack (who is actually marrying a younger, wealthy woman) is a philandering idiot who thinks he’s still a teenager.

Giamatti and Church are competent actors and make for convincing age-old best friends so some of the interaction between them is genuinely hilarious but these moments are too few and far between to rescue the other 90 minutes.