First and foremost, lets get one thing straight, i do love this film and is one of my favourites of all time, so therefore there will be bias in that direction! Also it was a complete surprise and was picked in an act of desperation down the video shop. Starring philip seymour hoffman, kathy bates and jack kehler it shows one mans attempt at trying to come to terms with the suicide of his wife and the discovery of her note days later. Im not going to give a blow by blow account of what happens in the story {i hate reviews that almost gives a scene by scene synopsis}, suffice to say that the "blurb" on the back of the dvd can be misleading. It suggests that it is about the relationship between wilson {hoffman} and his mother in law {bates}, but this isnt a usual story of two "at-odds" people who grow to love one another. In fact Bates isn't in it much at all, and it is Kehler who plays his odd ball "friend" Denny that Wilson spends most time with. The film covers a very short time period in wilsons life, a time that shows that he is not at all in control of anything, finding himself running away from situations, latching on to an unusual hobby and becoming "very" interested in solvent abuse. Mainly this is used to block his mind to everything else, mainly the fact that he cant bring himself to open the note left by his wife. However, i will agree that the film is slow, if you dislike Hoffman, you will probably hate this film, but his performance is superb. The film makers dont try to make wilson's character totally whiter than white either, we dont know what he was like before, nor in fact do we know what his relationship with his wife was like before. therefore it means that the audience have to get involved and make up their own mind. All performances are understated and silence is used to maximum effect in some scenes. Some critics panned the ending saying it didnt really tell us anything, i just wonder what film they were watching and what exactly they expected. Its part road movie/part discovery/part depressing! but if you fancy a thought-provoking, slightly quirky, emotional film with excellent performances then i would highly recommend it. The commentary features hoffman, the director todd louiso and writer gordy hoffman, and is unsurprisingly quite chatty and worth listening to.
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Production Year: 2000 - Drama - Director: Giuseppe Tornatore - Original Language: Italian - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Monica Bellucci, Giuseppe Sulfaro, Luciano Federico, Matilde Piana
Production Year: 2004 - Drama - Director: Nick Cassavetes - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over, 12 years and over - Starring: Rachel McAdams, Ryan Gosling, Gena Rowlands
Philip Seymour Hoffman (Almost Famous, Magnolia) and Academy Award - Winner Kathy Bates ... more
(Primary Colors, Misery) star in a heartbreaking and surprisingly funny drama about love, grief, and starting over. Successful web designer Wilson Joel's (Hoffman) ...
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Apr 11th, 2005
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