Love Liza

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Love Liza ★★ 2002 (R)

An acquired taste of a film that rests firmly on the slumped shoulders of Hoffman. He's Wilson Joel, whose wife Liza has just committed suicide (by carbonmonoxide poisoning in her car). He can't read the note she left him, can't deal with her sympathetic mother Mary Ann (Bates), can't—in fact—do much of anything except mope. Oh, and huff. Yes, Wilson decides to cope with his trauma by inhaling gasoline fumes (the fuel used in his model airplane hobby). Soon, his addiction is all there is to his sad sack existence. 90m/C VHS, DVD . Philip Seymour Hoffman, Kathy Bates, Jack Kehler, Stephen Tobolowsky, Sarah Koskoff, Erika Alexander; D: Todd Louiso; W: Gordy Hoffman; C: Lisa Rinzler; M: Jim O'Rourke. Sundance ‘02: Screenplay.