Love Liza *** (2002, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Kathy Bates) – Classic Movie Review 13,619

The 2002 American comic tragedy drama film Love Liza is a study in grief starring Philip Seymour Hoffman and Kathy Bates.

Director Todd Louiso’s 2002 American comic tragedy drama film Love Liza stars Philip Seymour Hoffman and Kathy Bates, with J D Walsh, Jack Kehler, Wayne Duvall, Sarah Koskoff and Stephen Tobolowsky.

Philip Seymour Hoffman gives a marvellous turn as website designer Wilson Joel, a man who collapses emotionally and turns to bizarre, regressive teenage rebellion-style behaviour of sniffing fumes from a petrol soaked rag and making remote-control model planes, after the suicide of his wife.

Kathy Bates is equally impressive, though with much less to do, as Wilson’s mother-in-law, Mary Ann Bankhead, who wants him to open the letter his wife has left to him, the signed suicide note Liza left under his pillow, which Wilson cannot bear to open.

The clever and moving Sundance Film Festival best screenplay winner was written by Hoffman’s brother, Gordy Hoffman. This compelling little movie is not exactly a bundle of laughs, as it is a study in grief, but it is emotionally and dramatically highly rewarding, as well as superbly acted.

Annie Morgan [Ann Morgan] plays Liza.

Rated R for drug use, strong language and brief nudity.

Love Liza premiered on January 14, 2002 at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award, followed by a limited released by Sony Pictures Classics on December 30, 2002.

It is the first film as director of American actor and director Todd Louiso. His 2012 film Hello I Must Be Going was selected as the opening night film of the Sundance Film Festival. His 2015 film adaptation of Macbeth stars Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard.

Gordy Hoffman said: ‘In 1996, Phil and I just happened to both go home to Rochester [Monroe County, New York] for Labor Day weekend. I’d just finished Love Liza, and I gave it to him to read.’ Philip Seymour Hoffman said of his brother’s script: ‘It was really, really good. I thought It should get done, and then it was like I’ll do it. It wasn’t like he asked me or I asked him.’

Cast: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Kathy Bates, J D Walsh, Jimmy Raskin Erika Alexander, Sarah Koskoff, Mark Hannibal, Stephen Tobolowsky, Jim Wise, Trace Turville, Wayne Duvall, Kevin Brezbahan, David Lenthall, Jack Kehler, Pauline Boyd, Ernest Perry Jr, and Annie Morgan [Ann Morgan] as Liza.

© Derek Winnert 2025 – Classic Movie Review 13,619

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