Love Liza

Love Liza

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DVD Reviews of Love Liza

DVD Review: A film unafraid to take risks with a difficult subject
Summary: 4 Stars

When the young widower in the film takes to inhaling gasoline fumes, he not only dulls the pain of his grief, but the slack, dazed expression on his face becomes the mask of grief itself. It suggests something of the overwhelming power of grief, to render us numbly out of touch with the rest of the world and beyond the entreaties of others who can't or won't understand. And like an addiction, grief can lead to behavior that looks irrational, impulsive and obsessive.

You have to give this movie credit for tackling this subject without cliches or sentimentality. Hoffman's performance captures the total haplessness of a man in the grip of deep grief -- even to the extent of letting us see his behavior as near farcical. His sudden interest in motor-driven model planes brings him into the world of flying enthusiasts, who are as single-mindedly obsessed with their planes as he is by his grief. The wonky friend who takes him to a weekend meet is a comic version of himself -- unaware of his own self-absorbed quirkiness.

The dead wife's mother (Kathy Bates, who can do no wrong) somehow deals with her daughter's death without going to pieces. She represents the audience's sensible acceptance of death and does what we expect, bravely soldiering on, even possessing the energy and will power to continually try pulling her son-in-law "back to his senses." And I think the film actually wants us to wonder how she does this -- how she manages to escape from the valley of the shadow of death.

Having continued downward in his spiral, losing a job for a software project he never begins, the main character eventually opens the suicide note left behind by his wife, signaling a step toward resolution. The note, of course, sheds little or no light on the reasons for her death and seems even indifferent to the devastating impact that it will have on her husband. The film ends as he "crashes and burns," and it's difficult to read the closing image as a step back from the brink or over the edge.

This is not going to be many people's idea of entertainment, although there are moments that are dramatically compelling or enjoyable for their unexpectedness. The performances are fine (Hoffman just never ceases to amaze me), and the script plays against movie conventions by being nicely unpredictable. Still, it requires patience and a stomach for difficult material. I recommend this one for those who want to take a risk on a risk-taking movie.