The brilliant Paul Giamatti plays Miles, a self-styled oenophile, failed novelist, and overachieving neurotic who takes his rather more relaxed, and soon-to-be-married, pal Jack (Thomas Haden Church) on a brief tour of California wine country in lieu of a bachelor party. Problem is, Jack thinks this is a bachelor party, and is determined to sow the last of his wild oats (of which there are apparently plenty) in between chardonnay tastings. This appalls Miles, who’s still not over his divorce. Miles’s moral dilemma is compounded when Jack’s fling with straight-shooting, hard-partying Stephanie (Sandra Oh) creates an opportunity for Miles to get to know Maya (Virginia Madsen), a more demure waitress who could be one of the few good things to happen to him in a long time.

Every performance here is wonderful, and the movie abounds in moments so true as to be cringe-worthy, as when, after getting on his high horse with Jack, Miles is then left alone in his motel room with only a sleazy porno mag for company. Payne’s deliberately given this movie a sometimes sunshine-saturated ’70s look, but the film is more than an homage to the great character-driven pictures of that era. It’s more like a continuation of a lost tradition. Putting down for a moment the sharp satirical stick he worked with such gusto in Citizen Ruth and Election—but which made a few errant pokes in his last film, About Schmidt—Payne and company have crafted one of the very best movies of the year.