This remarkable film strikes all chords and fills them with enough emotional content to allow for the viewer to see what the players are feeling. Jack (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is a limousine driver who's looking for something to fulfill his life. Clyde (John Ortiz) is Jack's closest friend and associate who-along side his wife Lucy (Daphne Rubin-Vega)-concocts a scheme to set up Lucy's work mate Connie (Amy Ryan) with Jack for a blind dinner date. As we find Jack and Connie working hard to overcome their own insecurities, they begin to see what their friends lives are really composed of. It's during our main characters interactions with their friends that we begin to see that all the truths are never "black and white". How intimate relationships could be built on sand and the fear of the ever encroaching sea could drive the relationship builders insane with compromises.
Yet in this tempest of unforgivingness, we see that there is a glimmer of a great love as it starts to blossom. there's a great story of true friendship that stands the test of even the hardest tribulations. With the victory and the spoils there are also the razed remains of what was...and sometimes the ruins can never be rebuilt.
Smartly written and humorously dry, this film is for those who may want to see the transformation of a persons psyche. It's ultimately an uplifting tale of two people who find each other in the masses and create a peace for themselves. Philip Seymour Hoffmann impresses in his directorial debut with a wonderfully inviting vision of the inner workings of Jack's mind. John Ortiz has an ability to sway the viewer into multiple feelings about his screen persona. With a pair like this anchoring a small and skilled cast, how could you not like this independent gig?
Emotionally investing and intellectually jolting, this celluloid will likely be enjoyed by those who've embraced; Garden State, Map of the Human Heart, an Benny & Joon.
This one receives a solid 7 out of 10 life preservers.
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