Diagonaldi Very well executed

Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

Billie Morin This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

Yash Wade Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

zetes 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.

frankenbenz 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.

gradyharp JACK GOES BOATING sneaks up on you. With a very small cast, very little dialogue, slow movement, and stuttered sound this little film slowly unravels a story about reconstructing tenuous lives for two awkward and damaged people who wrongly place their role models in the personas of pathological people. Robert Glaudini wrote the play on which this film is based and then thankfully wrote the screenplay for its transfer to film. Philip Seymour Hoffman produces, directs and stars, and once again proving he is an artist of great dramatic range. Jack (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is an obese, socially inept limousine driver who tunes out the world by wearing earphones to his recorded reggae music. He wants something better, even if that is driving for MTA, but he is buried in the paperwork and bureaucracy. His fellow limo driver is Clyde (Jack Ortiz) who is married to Lucy (Daphne Rubin-Vega) who works for a mortuary run by Dr Bob (Thomas McCarthy) who gives seminars on life that require telemarketing. There is a very plain new girl telemarketer Connie (Amy Ryan) with deep- seated issues of her own who faces being fired for being inept until a subway altercation increases her fortitude and she starts closing deals in her job. Clyde sets up Jack with Connie but with his lack of relationship skills almost blunders the setup. In the middle of winter Jack promises Connie that they will be dating by summer when Jack can take her boating. Clyde teaches the inept Jack how to swim, Lucy encourages Connie to take Jack seriously, and Jack accidentally promises Connie he will make dinner for her - something that really makes Connie trust Jack and find him desirable. Jack takes cooking lessons from Cannoli (Salvatore Inzerillo -a chef we soon discover Lucy has had affairs with) and with the swimming lessons preparing Jack for boating and the cooking lessons at Lucy and Clyde's apartment (Jack lives in his father's basement with only a hot plate!), the preparations for Jack and Connie to become connected are set. But very soon Jack learns from Clyde that Lucy is unfaithful, Lucy lets Jack know that Clyde has been unfaithful and when the time comes for Jack and Connie to have the 'dinner' with Lucy and Clyde, a volcanic reaction occurs , changing all the preparations in many ways. The interaction of the quartet of players show that life is a series of love, betrayal, friendship and grace. The manner in which the 'teaching couple' and the 'learning couple' find each other is both tender and pathetic - a balance that each of the quartet of players plays with aplomb. Hoffman takes Glaudini's play to new heights and the result is film that is insightful in the say it opens our eyes to the microstories that surround us. Grady Harp

evanston_dad It's never a pleasure to report that a film project brought to life largely through the efforts of someone whose work you greatly admire is a misfire, but such is the case with "Jack Goes Boating." Philip Seymour Hoffman, one of the best actors currently working, directed, co-wrote and stars in this oddball "comedy" about two sad sacks who find love in each other. It's like a darker, updated version of "Marty," with Hoffman standing in for Ernest Borgnine and the part of the wallflower, played memorably by Betsy Blair in the earlier film, played here by Amy Ryan. However, there's no rooting interest in this film as there was in "Marty." The characters played by Hoffman and Ryan are so weird, Ryan's especially, as to be nearly mentally ill. Indeed, Ryan's character is terribly written, as is the only other female character in the movie, a mutual friend played by Daphne Rubin-Vega as a vicious harpy. Her husband is Hoffman's best friend, and the film's major set piece is a disastrous dinner party at which Hoffman and Ryan watch their married friends, along with their marriage, self-destruct before their very eyes. I guess we're supposed to understand from this why Hoffman and Ryan are both so relationship shy; neither wants to end up in something as awful as the marriage that apparently serves as their only frame of reference. Are there no other married couples in the entire city of New York who might set a different example? The tone and pacing of the film is stilted and odd, as if Hoffman was trying too hard to give his film a quirky vibe. It's only 90 minutes long but it feels much longer thanks to the numerous slow and painful conversations we have to endure from these characters who remain at best obtuse and at worst downright unlikable.Grade: C