How could Oscar ignore Paul Giamatti’s performance in “Sideways”? He was the heart and soul of one of the most acclaimed pictures of the year.
In “Sideways,” Giamatti plays Miles, a failed writer and wine connoisseur, whose ability to connect with other people is clouded by his own insecurities. Giamatti’s painfully honest portrayal of a man coming to grips with personal failure is both heartbreaking and refreshing. As Miles, Giamatti has many scenes where he exhibits all those awkward, uncomfortable-in-your-own-skin moments that everybody feels but so few actors dare to portray. Giamatti may not have the smoldering good looks of some of this year’s nominees, namely Johnny Depp and Leonardo DiCaprio, but in “Sideways” his face beautifully expresses life’s hopes and disappointments in the subtlest way. In the past, Giamatti has been known for playing supporting parts, in what was referred to as “the sight gag” role, but now he is garnering more and more acclaim. He first got recognition as a leading man in “American Splendor,” and he’ll next appear alongside Russell Crowe in “Cinderella Man.” He may have been snubbed this year, but at the rate he’s going, one imagines that an Oscar nod is in the near future for Giamatti.