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Jack Goes Boating - Film Review
By Lorraine LoBianco, October 5th, 2010
Directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman. Produced by Big Beach Films in association with Starz’ Overture Films, “Jack Goes Boating” went into general release on September 23rd. Starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, John Ortiz, Richard Petrocelli.
For his film directorial debut, Philip Seymour Hoffman chose “Jack Goes Boating”, based on Bob Glaudini’s play that the LABryrinth Theater Company (founded by Hoffman and co-star John Ortiz) performed off-Broadway. Joining them is Daphne Rubin-Vega (who also appeared in the play) and Amy Ryan as Hoffman’s love interest, Connie.
The film is reminiscent of Paddy Chavesky’s “Marty”, which made the careers of Rod Steiger (in the live Philco-Goodyear Television Playhouse broadcast in 1953) and Ernest Borgnine (who won an Academy Award for the film version in 1955). Jack is Marty’s spiritual grandson: both characters are middle-aged, hefty, plain, alone, and believe they will always be so. And both characters find love with a thin, plain woman.
Like Chavesky, Glaudini and Hoffman set their story in a working-class New York City that is so real, you can almost smell the marijuana (of which there is plenty) and the burning dinner in the climax of the film. The sense of Big Apple claustrophobia is created with the use of mostly small interiors that give you no feeling for the space they occupy – the subway car, the back of a limo, tiny, cramped apartments and a hospital bed, rather than the whole room. It’s stifling, which Hoffman uses as excellent contrast to the later scenes of boating in the spring.
The film begins in the winter of Jack and Connie’s discontent, but they are not alone. Clyde and Lucy, their mutual friends and co-workers, set them up on an awkward blind date (in which Connie runs to the bathroom to hide her emotionally fragile state, just as Jack will during the disastrous dinner party). As they encourage and nurse Jack and Connie’s romance, their own marriage begins to crumble.
Actor/directors are not the norm in Hollywood, with Charlie Chaplin and Woody Allen being among the exceptions. Hoffman takes a page from each in this film. Chaplin would often break the fourth wall by looking directly into the camera in his early films in order to pull the audience into the joke. Hoffman uses (and overuses) this not to pull in the audience but to show that Jack is thinking important thoughts. In broad slapstick, it’s a friendly wink to the audience. In a drama, it becomes self-conscious.
Woody Allen uses music to underscore and flavor his films, which Hoffman also uses (and overuses). Some of the music works – as when Clyde goes to the Waldorf-Astoria hotel and nearly confronts his wife’s ex-lover, who is the hotel’s pastry chef. Here, Hoffman departs from the norm. Instead of Jack’s constant reggae, we hear Mel Tormé singing “Hello Young Lovers” with the line “and you meet, not really by chance” to let us know that Clyde has run into “The Canoli” not really by chance, but by design. Just as he is about to speak, he is interrupted by a woman who vaguely resembles his wife, which shuts down the attempted confrontation. A nice touch. But for the majority of the film, the music is always there, even when silence would be more powerful.
While Philip Seymour Hoffman is star of the film as well as the director, he never flaunts his authority, but rather generously allows his co-stars to shine. In fact, Hoffman seems to underplay the entire film until the climax, when his reaction to the dinner burning seems completely out of character and overacted. The sweetness that Hoffman gives to Jack makes him almost childlike so that it is jarring every time he utters an f-bomb. He’s sweet and kind and nice but not terribly interesting to watch. Amy Ryan’s Connie is the same way.
Where the film gets its spice is from John Ortiz’s Clyde, who orchestrates his friend’s romance while ruining his own. Clyde teaches Jack to swim because Connie would like to go boating when the weather warms up. At the pool, he is patient and encouraging; urging Jack to use the power of creative visualization to see himself underwater (a technique Jack will use throughout the film). He even goes to the extraordinary length of having Lucy ask her old lover, the chef, to teach Jack how to cook and it becomes his own undoing. Clyde begins to obsess over this five-year-old betrayal and his life begins to unravel just as Jack’s is blossoming. Ortiz simply commands every scene he’s in. If Jack is sweet and soft and bland, Clyde is dynamic and sexual and alive. This is an actor who clearly deserves to be seen more and with better material.
Lorraine LoBianco is an Addy™ award-winning creative writer and brings fifteen years of experience from the film and television world having worked for Fox Movie Channel, Turner Classic Movies Interactive and The American Film Institute.
Contact the Segue Newsroom; segue@mediaquire.com
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