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Jack Goes Boating
(2010)
 
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Directed
by:
Philip Seymour
Hoffman |
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COUNTRY
USA |
GENRE
Drama/Romance |
NORWEGIAN TITLE
Jack
Goes Boating |
RUNNING
TIME
89
minutes |
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Produced
by:
Beth O'Neil
Peter Saraf
Marc Turtletaub
Emily Ziff |
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Written by:
Robert Glaudini |
Review
Philip Seymour Hoffman's directorial debut is based on a successful
off-Broadway play by Robert Glaudini and belongs to a recent whiff of
nominally and thematically Eric Rohmer-inspired films such as
Margot
at the Wedding,
Lars
and the Real Girl,
Dan in Real Life,
and
Rachel Getting Married. Jack
Goes Boating shares its offbeat outlook on life with these films,
but it lacks interesting and/or believable characters, which arguably
are the make-or-break ingredient for a film as moody and uneventful as
this one. The story about Jack, a dysfunctional overgrown teenager
surrounded by dysfunctional friends, is low-key beyond repair. Jack
seems to have been living under a stone all his life; his days are spent
learning essential skills such as swimming or cooking dinners. The
accomplishments are painfully minimal, even for a bunch of
dysfunctionals. And coupled with Hoffman's dwelling directorial style
(even if there's rarely anything to dwell over), the film remains
inherently trite – and mostly sad – from start to finish. On the
up-side, Hoffman does exhibit some nice compositional details and
camerawork, and there are fine actors involved who do as best they can
with the material.
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