Love Liza (2002)

One of my all time favorites.

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

I've been a long time fan of Philip Seymour Hoffman,and this is one of my favorites! With an addiction to gasoline fumes Hoffman successfully portrays an individual so messed up I found myself calling out loud for him to stop what he was doing.It's black, it's funny, and you'll love it if you like this type of film! Kathy Bates is an actress who always impresses me. She's especially good in "Misery" with James Cohn, Yhen she's wonderful in "About Schmidt". No one will forget the hot tub scene.After this film, I don't think many people would find gasoline their drug of choice.

"Love Liza" is a film with a riveting premise - a man's life is turned upside down by the sudden suicide of his wife. The film focuses on the reverberations of the event in the man Wilson's life as he attempts to cope and understand - simultaneously.Philip Seymour Hoffman's Wilson is the obvious centerpiece of the story, and Hoffman delivers a great performance, bringing the viewer into the convoluted world of this poor man. Director Louiso, in his feature-length picture debut, brings welcome shading and spacing to the story, highlighting Wilson's teetering sense of reality. The musical score by Jim O'Rourke (formerly of Sonic Youth) also deserves special mention for perfectly underlining the highs and lows of the story with shimmering and lilting instrumentation.Unfortunately, the sum is not the positive cumulative of its parts. "Love Liza" is a bit of a confounding piece of work in this regard, because it truly succeeds in conveying its basic premise. Where the film misses is in how it draws Wilson, the supporting characters, and their relationships. Despite good performances, the supporting characters feel superficially presented, with a sense of artificiality in their connection to Wilson. Kathy Bates is really wasted here, and Jack Kehler's Denny seems to be best conveyed in a particularly stupid line about going to the bathroom. The evolving character flaws of Wilson in reaction to the event begin to feel tacked on over time as well, and ultimately, there is a feeling of being kept at arm's length.The film does deserve kudos for not looking for pat answers to Wilson's dilemma and of course, for Hoffman's performance. Overall, though, I found the result to be less moving and more unsatisfying than I'd hoped. I'd give it 5 out of 10.

I've seen Love Liza over a dozen times, and each time I watch it, I laugh. No, it's not a comedy, but I would definitely call it a dark one.The story is about a man whose wife has committed suicide, and we meet as he is in mourning. He cannot sleep in his own bed, but instead curls up on a blanket on the floor. One night he pulls an extra pillow off his bed to find the suicide note left by his recently departed wife. Yes, all of this is sad, but then we get into how he deals with this note. He escapes by huffing gas.Now comes the funny part. Gas alone doesn't cut it, as he discovers a better high with model airplane fuel, and so his wild adventure begins in the world of model racing.Mr. Hoffman portrays this role with so many layers. We see him as the mourning widower, the gas huffing goof ball, and get a glimpse of who he was before his wife's death, a hotshot graphics designer. This film shows us that even when life becomes too painful to bear, we can always find a reason to laugh before we have to face the pain.

This film was recommended to me as a study in grief. I have had sudden tragedy in my own life as many of us have or will have. I watched this movie and wanted to like it, oh how I desperately wanted to like it. But maybe that was the point? You are not supposed to like Wilson. Certainly his life is tragic. That automatically makes us feel bad for him, yet halfway through the movie I realized I was watching a movie and further realized that that is not supposed to happen in a good movie.At about the 40 minute to 45 minute point of 'Love Liza' it occurred to me that I had no idea where the story was going. And not in a good way. It vaguely resembled 'Leaving Las Vegas' in that you got the sense that something terrible was up ahead, but in the case of Hoffman's Wilson, I just didn't care. I was sick of him and his sad faces and his random acts and his bizarre gas sniffing habit.Also, I am not an expert at storytelling. I have read McKee's book. I've read Syd Field's book, too. I'm pretty sure a story needs to have a beginning, middle and end. At least in the traditional sense. Otherwise, it's not a movie, it's more of a Bunch Of Stuff That Happened, which usually works better (if at all) in a documentary.So, 'Love Liza' started in the middle, stayed in the middle and ended in the middle of a story. The beginning is conspicuously gone and the ending has also been very noticeably left out. Stories for me have a way of making me feel like I went on a journey with the main character and then at the end we part ways and I spend some time thinking or talking about the story I just experienced. In this case, I feel very ripped off because I found myself talking only about what wasn't there and how many things were started that went nowhere. Maybe if there is a prequel and a sequel it will make more sense as a trilogy.Then again, I'm probably not advanced enough for this film.