Love Liza

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Hoffman's acting is poignant and compassionate, etching a profoundly sad character with no trace of compromise, and Bates gives one of her most controlled performances ever.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Hoffman's touchingly fractured performance gives the picture a warm dimension.

Dallas Observer Robert Wilonsky

Provides Hoffman with what he's long deserved: a movie of his own.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

Me, I’ve now seen the movie three times and I’ve laughed and I’ve cried. It comes the closest to any movie experience I’ve had in re-creating the aftermath of unexplained suicide. Sometimes there just aren’t any answers.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

An oddly endearing little chamber piece that provides a terrific showcase for Hoffman, surely the best actor who has never been nominated for an Oscar.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The movie proceeds with a hypnotic relentlessness that hesitates between horror and black comedy.

San Francisco Chronicle Edward Guthmann

A downbeat but oddly affectionate tale.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Not about a plot but about a condition.

Variety Todd McCarthy

Todd Louiso's directorial debut emerges at once as compelling and as a bit of a specimen due to the entirely singular nature of the protagonist's behavior.

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

"Dark and demanding" doesn't begin to describe this devastating film -- It is not too much to say that without its splendid use of music Love Liza might not be bearable.

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

May frustrate as many viewers as it delights (if not more) and it is almost relentlessly depressing, but it's also a principled, sharply realistic film that captures a highly convincing vision of Middle America.

LA Weekly Ernest Hardy

Quirkily sad, unexpectedly funny -- and just a tad repetitive.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

Less a story than a film of emotional textures, this is a study in stasis.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

Louiso has a confident touch and a good eye, and there isn't a scene in the film that wasn't intelligently done. Besides Hoffman's near-great performance as Joel, there isn't a bad or mediocre acting job on view either.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

It's a great performance that's a horror to watch. Of all the bleak year-end movies, Love Liza is the bleakest; of all the sad characters you've seen lately, Hoffman's Wilson Joel is the saddest. And he goes home with you.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

Sad, strange little drama about spousal bereavement and gasoline addiction, and though mostly well done, I doubt we'd take much notice if the film weren't a showcase for one of our most brilliant young actors, Philip Seymour Hoffman.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps

Love Liza needs more than mood on its side. A moment of recognizable human behavior would have been a fine place to start.

The New York Times Dana Stevens

The movie is so small and emotionally constricted that it gives Hoffman too little room to explore his range.

Miami Herald Connie Ogle

The misery is there, all right, in every woozy, spaced-out shot of Hoffman clutching his gas-soaked rag. But in the end, do we really care?

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

Because the movie is about addictive behavior dulling the pain of grief rather than in the larger drama of dealing with grief, the movie reduces the scope of Hoffman's performance.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

In its component parts, then, Love Liza is essentially a battle between opposing clichés.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Hoffman acts the hell out of the role.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

I've heard it said that Philip Seymour Hoffman, one of the most talented character actors currently working, can't carry a film himself, and unfortunately this indie feature isn't meaty enough to prove otherwise.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

Everyone's work is heartfelt, heaven knows, but the script, by Mr. Hoffman's brother, Gordy Hoffman, gives the movie's star little but lugubriousness to play...eventually the whole thing seems to be running on fumes.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

Does have the enclosed, slightly overheated feel of a family theatrical.

USA Today Mike Clark

Hoffman stores the plane fuel in his house and even enjoys sniffing it. The movie might be a lot more fun as a suspense pic were he to take on a roommate who chained-smoked.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

The tone is inconsistent -- sometimes it seems to be straining for black comedy, other times it seems dead serious.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

Sadly, the filmmakers haven't given viewers enough context or information about their protagonist to know whether he's utterly free or utterly unmoored -– or to care very much either way.

Village Voice Michael Atkinson

What should have been an idiosyncratic 20-minute short is distended by repetition and loads of standard indie-film time-killers.