Superior movie, excellently acted and directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman with a stella cast. A plain storyline but the intricacies and subtleties of relationships woven in make it engrossing. This movie reinforces the demise of PSH being such a sad loss to the movie world.
In his directorial debut Phillip Seymour Hoffman plays reggae loving New York limousine driver whose noncommittal mumblings and rather appalling attempt at dreadlocks have found him in his 40’s having never had a long term girlfriend. Things change however when Jack meets Connie (Amy Ryan) a shy neurotic fellow New Yorker who Jack attempts to woo in his own charmingly obscure fashion.
The film is a quiet oddity, fitting nicely within the pleasingly off kilter parameters of the Hollywood indie without having that quirky teenage feel about it. It is a duller more believable story than the normally hyper emotional indies that tour the circuit.
For a directorial opening Hoffman has done brilliantly, casting himself in a role that could easily have swung into the nonsensical and cartoonish that holds the piece up, whilst Ryan’s performance as Connie is a little reminiscent a female Woody Allen.Despite the movie’s endearing nature and tone it struggles to stand out very much, lacking the upbeat gloss of most American indie’s has left the movie a little hollow, although the characters are great and the story intriguing there’s just very little to make it stand out. A perfectly enjoyable yet equally forgettable watch.