Susan Granger’s review of “Jack Goes Boating” (Overture Films)
It’s always interesting when actors turn to directing because, quite often, they use their ‘star’ currency to bankroll low-keyed, dialogue-driven performance vehicles, like Philip Seymour Hoffman’s adaptation of Bob Glaudini’s 2007 play that Hoffman’s theater group, LABrinth, produced off-Broadway.
Reminiscent of Paddy Chayefsky’s 1950s classic “Marty,” it’s all about middle-aged relationships. Jack (Hoffman) and Clyde (John Ortiz) are New York limo drivers and best friends. To say that morose, mumbling, pot-smoking Jack is socially inept is an understatement. Devoted to reggae, he’s even tried to twist his hair into dreadlocks. On the other hand, genial Clyde is married to Lucy (Daphne Rubin-Vega), who works at a funeral home in Brooklyn with timid Connie (Amy Ryan), who seems to be on the brink of being fired by their lecherous mortician/boss (Tom McCarthy).
As matchmakers, Clyde and Lucy introduce Jack to Connie during the winter of their discontent. And despite some awkwardness on their first date, they seem to connect with one another. The title refers to the disclosure that cautious Connie would really like to go boating when summer comes and Jack would like to take her. But first Clyde has to teach him how to swim, and the pool scenes at the Y reveal Jack’s character, including his yearning for self-improvement and desire to work for the MTA. In the meantime, Clyde and Lucy are having serious marital fidelity issues and everything erupts at an elaborate dinner that Jack, who has also been taking cooking lessons, prepares for Connie.
Since three of the four actors are reprising their stage roles, they’ve come to inhabit and delineate the authentic emotionality of their off-beat characters with ease, and Amy Ryan (Oscar-nominated for “Gone Baby Gone”) fits into the ensemble splendidly. Problem is: it looks like a play that’s been filmed. It’s claustrophobically stage-bound because Hoffman (“Capote,” “Doubt”) never visually opens it up to the Manhattan locale.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Jack Goes Boating” is a sensitive, slice-of-life, subtle 7, depicting lonely people yearning to make an emotional connection.
