LOVE LIZA

COLUMBIA TRISTAR

RELEASED 31 January 2003

A film about a man whose wife has just killed herself. What a miserable premise, definitely not the most promising premise. But if you’re looking for a well-judged character study of helpless pain, then you can’t get much better than this. All Wilson Joel (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) has left of his wife is a suicide note, which he cannot bring himself to open. As his job goes down the pan, fuelled (get it?) by a gasoline inhalation addiction, the only friends has left are his wifes’ mother (Kathy Bates) and a new-found love of model aeroplanes. ‘Love Liza’ is uncomfortable subject matter treated with subtlety and wit, Phillip Seymour Hoffman giving a fantastic performance of despair and grief. It doesn’t outstay it’s welcome and gives you an impression of the depths we can all, but hope never to, sink to.

THREE OUT OF FIVE