In a widower's druggy grief, very little drama
A consummate character actor whose roles include Adam Sandler's telephone tormentor in Punch-Drunk Love and the nurse in Magnolia, Philip Seymour Hoffman is an offbeat performer who brings fascinating rhythms (not to mention depth and edge) to any project he's in. This includes Love Liza, where he is in almost every sequence and measures with dead-reckoning eyes the precise dimensions of grief. But it's as a showcase for an actor's actor rather than as a drama that engages our hearts that Love Liza is of the least interest.
A consummate character actor whose roles include Adam Sandler's telephone tormentor in Punch-Drunk Love and the nurse in Magnolia, Philip Seymour Hoffman is an offbeat performer who brings fascinating rhythms (not to mention depth and edge) to any project he's in.
This includes Love Liza, where he is in almost every sequence and measures with dead-reckoning eyes the precise dimensions of grief. But it's as a showcase for an actor's actor rather than as a drama that engages our hearts that Love Liza is of the least interest.
After his wife commits suicide, Wilson Joel (Hoffman) struggles to find a lifeline. He continues to work (as a successful Web designer) and maintain a connection with his mother-in-law (Kathy Bates), but the void in his heart sucks the oxygen out of any room and leaves him gasping.
Love Liza - its title refers to Liza Joel's unopened suicide note - chronicles Wilson's journey from grief to limbo to hell.
Directed by Todd Louiso from a script by Gordy Hoffman (brother of the actor), Love Liza was shot in Mobile, Ala., by the gifted cinematographer Lisa Rinzler, who maximizes the drama by framing every sequence with a minimalist's eye.
The film's first act is its most involving, as Wilson's well-intentioned mother-in-law (awesome Bates) and colleagues console and condole without having any visible impact on Wilson, a lump of uncooked dough.
Love Liza is ambiguous about cause and effect, which gives it some narrative tension outside of Hoffman's performance. It doesn't specify whether Wilson is a "huffer" - one who inhales gas fumes and airplane glue to get high - because it's a way to connect with his dead wife's suicide (by carbon monoxide), or whether his addiction was the precipitating cause.
Noting that Wilson has airplane glue in the fridge, one of his colleagues assumes he is a model-airplane hobbyist. This provides Wilson a cover, as well as the movie one of its more bizarre set pieces: the sight of the deranged Wilson amid the squares at an "r.c." (remote-control) boat, car and plane convention.
Because the movie is about addictive behavior dulling the pain of grief rather than in the larger drama of dealing with grief, the movie reduces the scope of Hoffman's performance.
Contact movie critic Carrie Rickey at 215-854-5402 or crickey@phillynews.com.
Love Liza ** (Out of four stars)
Produced by Ruth Charny, Chris Hanley, Corky O'Hara, Jeffrey Roda and Fernando Sulichin, directed by Todd Louiso, written by Gordy Hoffman, photography by Lisa Rinzler, music by Jim O'Rourke, distributed by Sony Pictures Classics.
Running time: 1 hour, 30 mins.
Wilson Joel. . . Philip Seymour Hoffman
Mary Ann Bankhead. . . Kathy Bates
Maura Haas. . . Sarah Koskoff
Tom Bailey. . . Stephen Tobolowsky
Parent's guide: R (inhalant abuse, nudity, profanity, mature themes)
Showing at: Ritz at the Bourse