I am not sure why American "small" films are so alike and so poor and so boring. Like so many indie films made in this country, if a film directed by a major actor qualifies as such, this one manages to combine boring "losers" caught in a mesh of unbelievable situations. The so-called character development is telegraphed from the first moment, the so-called plot twists equally so. There is not a single moment of interesting dialogue to sustain any interest. Compare this film with the excellence of Mademoiselle Chambon or Un Couer en Hiver and one gets a full sense of what is missing from "sensitive" American movies. While the acting is perfectly acceptable, there wasn't any especial range required of the actors either. Hoffman's quiet, inarticulate blandness was a stand-in for any real sense of character.
Review of Jack Goes Boating
