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Special Features
- Sundance Film Festival, Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award, Winner, 2002
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More and more I find myself turning to the Independent films to find a story with substance. Although shot on a low budget, "Love Liza", is one of those Indies, that manages, with the help of an intellegent screenplay, and some innovative filming(and a little help from Philip Seymour Hoffman and Kathy Bates), to tell a story that will touch it's audience on many levels.
As the film opens, we watch the first scene in silence, and see a man distraught over the recent suicide of his wife. Wilson Joel(Hoffman) is a man who cannot even bring himself to sleep in his own bed. A man who cannot even sleep at all. But this is quite a different take on loss then we have seen in such films as "Sleepless In Seattle". Wilson seems to be sinking more and more into his own world, using gasoline fumes to take him away from reality, and not even noticing the rest of the world going by around him.
Friends and co-workers walk on egg shells around him, knowing the pain he is feeling...all except his mother-in-law Marianne(Bates), who never lets up on trying to bring him back to the living. Wilson has found a note left by his wife, and although he carries it with him everywhere, can not bring himself to read it. The audience may sense that the guilt he feels, and what he may find in the letter, may be too much for him to bear.
It's a drama about grief, but with comedic touches just in the right places, as well as some nice ironic twists to think about. Hoffman is superb. He portrays Wilson in a way that will be tugging at your heart one moment and laughing the next. Kathy Bates excellent as always, as the woman grieving over the death of her daughter, but strong enough to see and do something about the world Wilson has gone to. I hope we will see more from Director Todd Louiso(You remember him..Chad the Nanny from "Jerry Maguire"). His wonderful behind the camera talent is obvious from this film. Gordy Hoffman's extraordinary screenplay couldn't have been in better hands.
The DVD presents a very nice clear picture in Widescreen. Colors are used well in this film and are vibrant on the transfer. The sound is very good in Dolby Surround. Features include commentary by Louiso, and Hoffman, Filmographies and trailers.
This film in an hour and a half, had me really caring about the main character, something I don't often see in recent films that are twice as long.
Recommended for those who are looking for something a little different from the rest. Something with substance, something to think about afterwards.....Laurie
Yes, there are moments of uncomfortable laughter, but that doens't make Love Liza a comedy. Its not. Its a very depressing, yet wonderfully acted, film. The dialog was natural -- which is to say that it was simple, confused, and sometimes directionless -- exactly how you would expect an addicted, young man coping with the suicide of his wife would be.
Kathy Bates is excellent as the mother of the deceased, trying to cope with her loss as well. She battles with Hoffman, trying to be supportive, yet urging him to open the letter, hoping to find some answers to why her daugter killed herself.
This is a brilliant film, with Philip Seymour Hoffman at his absolute best. But if anyone suggests that this is a "dark comedy" - beware. There is no comedy here. Unless you think coping with the loss of your wife is funny.
Written by Gordy Hoffman and directed by Todd Louiso, "Love Liza" is a searing study of grief, one that chronicles the many stages a man goes through in coping with this type of tragedy. Wilson first finds himself unable to sleep in the same bed he used to share with his wife. Then he returns to the place where they spent their honeymoon in a vain attempt to find some solace or answers there. Then there's the turn towards self-destruction as he seeks escape from his pain by inhaling mass quantities of gasoline. All along the way, well-meaning friends, colleagues and family members proffer what they can in the way of support and sympathy but, invariably, they find themselves ill-equipped to deal with grief at this level of intensity. This is even the case with Mary Ann, Wilson's understanding mother-in-law, who is having to cope with her son-in-law's dysfunction while also dealing with her own grief at the loss of her daughter.
The title of the film comes from a signed suicide note Liza left to Wilson under his pillow. That letter, which Wilson cannot bring himself to open, only adds to the man's despair, for he fears it may reveal that he was somehow responsible for his wife's actions. Thus, wracked with guilt as well as grief, Wilson slides ever further into that deep dark hole of despair. The filmmakers, in an effort to mitigate some of the misery inherent in the subject matter, invest the story with a number of sly, quirky touches, such as Wilson's sudden obsession with mechanized toy airplanes. But the overwhelming sadness is never far from the film's surface.
"Love Liza" is, at its core, an actor's film - and the cast proves itself worthy of the challenge. Hoffman's portrait of a man whose entire meaning for existence has been knocked out from under him is devastating in its understatement and power. Kathy Bates turns in an equally fine and subdued performance as his grieving mother-in-law, and Sarah Koskoff and Jack Kehler offer fine support.
Is "Love Liza" a "dark" film? Absolutely. But it is also a brave, insightful and compelling one for those willing to enter its world. It may not be easy to watch, but it is probably harder not to.
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