Jack Goes Boating (2010)

Jack (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is a limo driver working for his uncle with his friend Clyde. Clyde and his wife Lucy invite Jack and her co-worker Connie (Amy Ryan) to dinner. Connie is socially awkward like Jack. It's winter. After Connie mentions boating, Jack decides to take swimming lessons. She gets attacked on the subway. When Connie mentions that nobody has ever cooked for her, Jack decides to take cooking lessons. Meanwhile, jealousy seeps into Clyde and Lucy's marriage over perceived infidelity. Philip Seymour Hoffman and Amy Ryan are endearing together. There are some good oddball moments. Amy Ryan trying to close a deal while spouting blood is kind of funny. It's a bit clunky at times with Philip Seymour Hoffman trying out directing for the first and only time.

Philip Seymour Hoffman's directorial debut (and, of course, only effort as director) is a small indie flick based on an off-Broadway play (written by Robert Glaudini) in which he starred. He plays it very safe in both his direction and acting, but the results are pretty satisfying. Hoffman plays Jack, a man who has zero experience with relationships. His best friends (John Ortiz and Daphne Rubin-Vega) set him up with Amy Ryan. She likes him fine, but Jack finds he has very little to say to her. He decides to make himself a better man by learning to cook and swim (two of the interests she mentions on their first date). Jack is a pretty typical Hoffman character. In particular, he reminded me of Scotty from Boogie Nights. Ryan is good, but the script really doesn't give her much character. Ortiz and Rubin-Vega, playing a married couple who are having some troubles, are fairly interesting. Hoffman opens up the stage origins, and the film actually looks quite nice, especially during the swimming sequences, which have some nice underwater photography. I suspect most, or maybe all of the play takes place in Ortiz's and Rubin-Vega's apartment, where most of the biggest scenes in the movie take place. The film's worth seeking out.

www.eattheblinds.comThere's no such thing as an "easy" relationship. Some work, most don't. When two people bring out the best in each other, they shouldn't take for granted something's working and worth holding on to. The world shits on us regularly and a great relationship is a comforting reprieve from this shiz storm. The hardest thing to anticipate is the inevitability of protecting the other person from yourself. We're flawed, but are we doomed to poisoned relationships because of these flaws? Sometimes yes, rarely no. Undiluted love does happen and in these rare instances, someone inspires such good in you, you can't help but be a better person than you've ever imagined possible. This is when you learn to love yourself through the eyes of someone else. It's a powerful thing. Even more powerful then when you're with the wrong person, seeing yourself doing ugly things and hating yourself all the more because of it. Perhaps the point of all this is to hold out for the right person. This is, essentially, what Jack Goes Boating is all about.The movie is adapted from Bob Glaudini's play of the same name, skillfully translated to the screen by first time director and star Philip Seymour Hoffman. Like the writing, acting and directing, the soundtrack is populated with songs (by Grizzly Bear) articulating each moment with bittersweet melancholy. Throughout the film you feel the pain without being told what the pain is. It's underplayed like most good art is and there's moments of introspection where you're allowed to find you own way into the character's heads and hearts. Because of this, Jack Goes Boating feels personal and real. The longing hurts, but it's a story that gives your heart a glimmer of hope, a reason to keep looking for love. In the end, we all want to be loved. We all want to love ourselves a little more. We all want someone we can can love and give back to them, what they give to us. Like us, these people are all flawed, yet they're there for each other, and in their moments of selflessness, we see (to quote the band Sloan) the good in everyone.

Small but rewarding little drama about two lost souls brought together by a another couple who have doomed their own relationship. The old couple each have a workplace friend who they decide, that they might belong together; sort of as a surrogate for their own relationship which is seriously damaged by infidelities, drugs and general fatigue.The two friends are damaged by life (how is anyone's guess, but my analysis is that the female has probably been raped or something similar, and the male has some serious self esteem issues, due to childhood mistreatment). The juxtaposition between the development in the "love-story" of the two couples should be interesting for adult people anywhere, but do not expect this to be a happy comedy. This is deeply disturbing on a lot of levels, while still speaking to the search for somebody to love. The grass is not always greener on the other side. Acting, photography, soundtrack is all low-key but of an extremely high quality, which should be expected as the labor of love that this is.