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SIDEWAYS Movies in which characters hit the road in search of adventure and end up discovering themselves are nothing new to American film - in fact, they're an integral part of our cinematic heritage - yet this one is idiosyncratic enough to stand apart from the pack. Miles (Paul Giamatti), a chronically depressed high school teacher, and Jack (Thomas Haden Church), a has-been actor about to get married, decide to book passage to California's Santa Ynez Valley to tour the local wineries; while there, they get involved with two women (Virginia Madsen and Sandra Oh) who force them to reconsider their present outlooks on life. It should be noted that this lovely motion picture should itself be approached like a fine wine: Uncork it, give it time to breathe, and then luxuriate in its rich, heady flavor. It also ages nicely, holding up beautifully under repeat viewings.

THE WEDDING DATE We expect TV stars trying to make the transition to the big screen to find themselves saddled with subpar material, but this one takes that notion to the extreme. To say that the script for The Wedding Date is bottom-of-the-barrel would be too kind; this one was already decomposing under a mountain of mulch before Will & Grace's Debra Messing fished it out. Messing plays a woman whose neurotic impulses are meant to be endearing but who instead comes off as something of a pill. Required to fly to England to attend the wedding of her loathsome sister (Amy Adams), she can't stand the thought of arriving alone, so she spends $6,000 to hire a male prostitute (Dermot Mulroney) to pretend to be her boyfriend. This was clearly inspired by the success of such Brit-flavored confections as Four Weddings and a Funeral and Bridget Jones' Diary - and the comparisons end there.

OPENS FRIDAY:

BRIDE & PREJUDICE: Aishwarya Rai, Martin Henderson.
CURSED: Christina Ricci, Jesse Eisenberg.
DIARY OF A MAD BLACK WOMAN: Kimberly Elise, Tyler Perry.
MAN OF THE HOUSE: Tommy Lee Jones, Christina Milian.