‘Love Liza,’ a shifting ride of emotions

In the 34 -- yes, 34 -- films Philip Seymour Hoffman has made in the past dozen years, he has established himself as one of the movies’ most distinctive and versatile young character actors. Pale and freckled, with longish red hair and a decided paunch, Hoffman automatically stands out, especially in contrast to classic leading-man types. He was part of the extraordinary “Magnolia” ensemble, played a gutsy drag queen opposite a macho Robert De Niro in “Flawless” and was the hapless gay guy with unrequited love for Mark Wahlberg’s porn star in “Boogie Nights.”

With “Love Liza” he moves up to undisputed above-the-title star, and he’s up to the challenge; Hoffman holds the screen with ease and confidence in what is a terrifically tough film to watch. “Dark and demanding” doesn’t begin to describe this devastating film, which holds out the possibility of redemption and rebirth on the slenderest of threads.

The setting is Mobile, Ala., where Hoffman’s Wilson is a successful Web site designer who lives with his beloved, beautiful wife, Liza, in a spacious suburban home. Wilson seems a droll, happy man until he comes home and discovers that Liza has committed suicide in a particularly horrible fashion. She has left him a note, but he cannot bear to read it.

Actor turned director Todd Louiso, in a fearless feature debut, and writer Gordy Hoffman, who wrote the script for himself but deferred to his brother, make Wilson’s inability to bring himself to read his wife’s suicide note the driving force of the entire film. Liza’s death has hit Wilson with the force of an 18-wheeler, and as the shock of her perplexing suicide gradually starts waning, the magnitude of his loss becomes ever clearer to him, leaving him reeling all the more from its impact. Inevitably, his life and career disintegrate, and he becomes derelict and inconsolable in his grief. Even as he becomes enveloped in his pain, he tries, despite erratic outbursts, to make occasional efforts to be polite and grateful to those who try to reach out to him.

In seeking escape from the black hole his life has become, Wilson falls into sniffing gasoline, and a desperate attempt to hide his new habit inadvertently leads him to a new and unexpected passion -- remote control model planes and the friendship of a kindly aficionado (Jack Kehler). There are moments when Wilson’s spirits soar like those miniature aircraft. “Love Liza” proceeds episodically, mirroring Wilson’s shifting moods, but the filmmakers’ ramblings prove deceptive, for in its indirect way the film is all the while building to a climactic moment. Determinedly modest in tone, “Love Liza” is a fiercely brave and honest work.

Wilson is a big, all-over-the-place role, and Hoffman has more than enough talent, range and discipline to fill it fully. Hoffman is not afraid to show how self-indulgent all-consuming grief can become. Lisa Rinzler’s low-key cinematography is in keeping with the film’s unpretentious tone.

For all his rightful dominance in the film, Wilson is not the whole story, and the filmmakers have surrounded Hoffman with a stellar supporting cast of actors as individual as he is. Kehler is the ultimate good guy, yet even he has his limits; Sarah Koskoff is Wilson’s concerned yet overly attentive boss; Stephen Tobolowsky plays another kindly man who tries to give Wilson a second chance professionally; and, best of all, Kathy Bates plays Wilson’s distraught mother-in-law, confounded and stunned by her daughter’s death and exasperated by Wilson’s refusal to open the letter and his increasingly irresponsible behavior. Louiso melds all these exceptional actors into a seamless ensemble.

The look and feel of the film is deliberately and effectively artless, the better to set off Wilson and his grappling with a tragic loss. Mercifully, “Love Liza” is not without humor and is boosted by Jim O’Rourke’s score and its use of songs that not only echo Wilson’s mercurial moods but also sometimes effectively counterpoint them. It is not too much to say that without its splendid use of music “Love Liza” might not be bearable.

*

‘Love Liza’

MPAA rating: R, for drug use, language and brief nudity.

Times guidelines: Heavy drug use, intense themes make it unsuitable for younger audiences.

Philip Seymour Hoffman...Wilson Joel

Kathy Bates...Mary Ann Bankhead

Jack Kehler...Denny

Sarah Koskoff...Maura

Stephen Tobolowsky...Tom Bailey

A Sony Pictures Classics release. Director Todd Louiso. Producers Ruth Charny, Chris Hanley (Muse Films), Jeff Roda, Fernando Sulichin (Blacklist Films). Executive producers Jim Czarnecki, Daniel Guckau (Kinowelt Filmproduktion GmbH), Rainer Kolmel (Kinowelt Filmproduktion GmbH), Vincent Maraval (Wild Bunch, France), Alain de la Mata (Wild Bunch, U.K.). Screenplay Gordy Hoffman. Cinematographer Lisa Rinzler. Editor Anne Stein Katz. Music Jim O’Rourke. Costumes Jill Newell. Production designer Stephen Beatrice. Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes.

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