Love Liza

Before you watch this film you must ask yourself, how depressed am I? There is not a bright light in this film anywhere. If you are already on the edge and don't want to go over, I would not recommend watching this film.

That said, Phillip Seymour Hoffman gave an Oscar-worthy performance. He was completely terrific and should have won the Oscar for this film. Kathy Bates was great too. Everyone was great. The story was believable and well scripted.

But, unless you enjoy slumming in depression, I would forgo watching this film. There are too many other films that offer even the smallest ray of positivity to spend your time on this one. A tiny smile generated from a film is, in my humble opinion, better than being left looking for the razor blades.

I gave it a 7 because of the craftsmanship exhibited by the actors and filmmakers. If I had to give it a rating on how it made me feel afterward, I'd probably have to give it a 1.

Greetings again from the darkness. It has been a week since I saw this and I am still not sure what to make of it. Philip Seymour Hoffman comes through beautifully in his first true lead role. He magically captures the private pain and freedom associated with losing a loved one. Hoffman's brother, Gordy, wrote the screenplay and it is brilliant in its ability to make the audience (and sometimes its lead character) smile, even laugh during a most sorrowful time. Kathy Bates delivers a strange, but effective performance as the grieving-wanna be- helpful mother-in-law. Two terrific supporting roles from the great Stephen Tobolowsky and Jack Kehler. Director Todd Louiso (Dick from "High Fidelity") lets us examine our feelings on mourning and how individualistic the process can be. Who knows what is the right way to grieve, or when enough is enough? Trying to find yourself after losing a part of your life is not necessarily a 12 step program, nor should it be. Re-discovering life can be painful and exhilarating and this movie shows both sides pretty well.

Philip Seymour Hoffman plays Wilson, a software engineer who has just lost his wife to suicide. The movie traces Wilson's descent into gasoline sniffing, erratic behavior, wanton risk taking, and ultimate self-destruction.

P.S.H. and Kathy Bates turn in good performances but, whereas Hoffman is the central focus, his performance is a little more mannered and forced than we have come to expect from him.

Maybe there is no more meaning to grief than as a highly personal experience, but as a moviegoer having suffered through this man's trauma for an hour and a half I wanted more reward. The hook to keep us interested was the suicide note, but it turned out to be rather generic. At the end we are just left with lots of questions: what was Wilson's wife like, did he drive her to suicide, how come he had no friends, what was it in the relationship that the suicide knocked him for such a loop, what was he like before the suicide, does the final scene imply that Wilson has taken the final step into madness or that the only way for him to recover was to leave everything behind?

If you are a P.S.H fan, then maybe there is enough here for you, but I think this movie will be a little too dark for most viewers.

I think PSH is wonderful in this movie and it really shows his incredible acting abilities in a very raw way.

This is a tragic, tragic film that demonstrates the waves of destruction that emanate from suicide. It shows the decline of a ordinary man doing well to a self destructive huffing addict. You could watch this with your wife, if she can stay awake, and then you'll find yourselves discussing it for weeks.

Don't expect to discover the moral, learn lessons or take away answers from this movie. The beauty of this movie is that it leaves more questions than answers. Its a movie that inspires thinking and a barrage of unanswered questions left in your head. Any movie that inspires so much thought after it is over is a real winner to me.

I call Philip Seymour Hoffman my favorite actor, so of course when I found a movie where he is the center of attention (not usually the case) I felt obligated to see it. His older brother wrote the screenplay, no doubt with Philip in mind for the part.

To tell you the truth, the overall feel of the movie wasn't so great. I'm sure that Hoffman played the character well, but we only get to see this character in this very strange part of his life. There's no context to judge how much of his behavior is situational. He seems to be cracking up, laughing at the office in a way that makes the others leave the area, and generally behaving in a way that shows lack of judgment. We understand that his wife just took her own life, it's revealed early on in the film, so we understand why he is behaving the way he is, we just don't know what he's normally like. I enjoyed Jack Kehler's character. He seems to be the kind of person you'd like to avoid talking to more than just briefly, but it makes sense that he gets on well with Hoffman's character during his time of turmoil. There were some things they chose to put in the movie (like his glass falling over at the beach, the flowers falling over at the cemetery, and the glove compartment not shutting) that felt like they would happen in real life - like real life metaphors, and I appreciated that element. I thought the gas huffing was a little strange until I read that there was a definite connection to the way his wife died. It's a tricky film to judge. It's hard to empathize with character because he's just so outside the norm, but it's easy not to judge him because it's hard to imagine anything much worse happening to a person.

If you really like Philip Seymour Hoffman I would tell you to go ahead and rent the film, I would at the same time tell you to keep your expectations lowered.