Love Liza (2002)

I think PSH is wonderful in this movie and it really shows his incredible acting abilities in a very raw way.

This is a tragic, tragic film that demonstrates the waves of destruction that emanate from suicide. It shows the decline of a ordinary man doing well to a self destructive huffing addict. You could watch this with your wife, if she can stay awake, and then you'll find yourselves discussing it for weeks.

Don't expect to discover the moral, learn lessons or take away answers from this movie. The beauty of this movie is that it leaves more questions than answers. Its a movie that inspires thinking and a barrage of unanswered questions left in your head. Any movie that inspires so much thought after it is over is a real winner to me.

Fmovies: I call Philip Seymour Hoffman my favorite actor, so of course when I found a movie where he is the center of attention (not usually the case) I felt obligated to see it. His older brother wrote the screenplay, no doubt with Philip in mind for the part.

To tell you the truth, the overall feel of the movie wasn't so great. I'm sure that Hoffman played the character well, but we only get to see this character in this very strange part of his life. There's no context to judge how much of his behavior is situational. He seems to be cracking up, laughing at the office in a way that makes the others leave the area, and generally behaving in a way that shows lack of judgment. We understand that his wife just took her own life, it's revealed early on in the film, so we understand why he is behaving the way he is, we just don't know what he's normally like. I enjoyed Jack Kehler's character. He seems to be the kind of person you'd like to avoid talking to more than just briefly, but it makes sense that he gets on well with Hoffman's character during his time of turmoil. There were some things they chose to put in the movie (like his glass falling over at the beach, the flowers falling over at the cemetery, and the glove compartment not shutting) that felt like they would happen in real life - like real life metaphors, and I appreciated that element. I thought the gas huffing was a little strange until I read that there was a definite connection to the way his wife died. It's a tricky film to judge. It's hard to empathize with character because he's just so outside the norm, but it's easy not to judge him because it's hard to imagine anything much worse happening to a person.

If you really like Philip Seymour Hoffman I would tell you to go ahead and rent the film, I would at the same time tell you to keep your expectations lowered.

"Love Liza" is a great film. A story about depression and the effect loved ones have on each other, it elicits all kinds of emotions from the audience: Laughter, Sadness, Anger. It deals with two subjects that are not easily displayed on film: Drug Use and Suicide, but deals with them in a brilliant way. After the death of his wife, Wilson (Phillip Seymour Hoffman), is thrown into a state of depression. He finds his wife's suicide note but does not want to open for fear of its contents and begins huffing gasoline to try to steer clear of the pain. Phillip Seymour Hoffman IS Wilson and does not skip a beat the entire film. He is one of this generations greatest actors, and this film shows why. Jack Kehler as Denny turns in a tremendous performance as well as Kathy Bates as Wilson's mother-in-law. Good film, made brilliant by superb performances.

Love Liza fmovies. Philip Seymour Hoffman plays Wilson, a software engineer who has just lost his wife to suicide. The movie traces Wilson's descent into gasoline sniffing, erratic behavior, wanton risk taking, and ultimate self-destruction.

P.S.H. and Kathy Bates turn in good performances but, whereas Hoffman is the central focus, his performance is a little more mannered and forced than we have come to expect from him.

Maybe there is no more meaning to grief than as a highly personal experience, but as a moviegoer having suffered through this man's trauma for an hour and a half I wanted more reward. The hook to keep us interested was the suicide note, but it turned out to be rather generic. At the end we are just left with lots of questions: what was Wilson's wife like, did he drive her to suicide, how come he had no friends, what was it in the relationship that the suicide knocked him for such a loop, what was he like before the suicide, does the final scene imply that Wilson has taken the final step into madness or that the only way for him to recover was to leave everything behind?

If you are a P.S.H fan, then maybe there is enough here for you, but I think this movie will be a little too dark for most viewers.

In short, this movie did precisely what it intended to do. After his spouse committs suicide, Hoffman's character finds himself on a dark journey of the heart. Depressed and hopeless, he turns to a dangerous drug to find solace. I have never seen grief portrayed as well as I have seen in this flick. If you allow yourself to become engaged with Mr. Hoffman's character, you will find yourself walking along in his slow, trudging shoes. You will find yourself struggling for rhyme, reason and redemption just like him. Some may argue that the character never evolves, or developes. That my friends, is the point of this masterpiece.

Love Liza is a not a movie for everyone. Its kind of slow but that is kind of the point. We meet Wilson Joel, beautifully portrayed by one of my favourite actors Phillip Seymour Hoffman, who has lost his wife, Liza. His wife has committed suicide, and our friend is seriously struggling with his loss. He finds Lizas suicide letter, and Wilson who has great problems solving his grief is unable to read the letter.

I found this movie to be really good. Like I said, it's not a movie for everyone, but If you like movies that shows personal drama in a non-Hollywood fashion, you might like this one. Kathy Bates plays Lizas mother, an as always, she does a hell of a job.