Jack Goes Boating (***)

Philip Seymour Hoffman can seemingly act in any type of part, and it turns out he can also direct. Casting himself as a limo driver opposite the equally versatile Amy Ryan (Gone Baby Gone), he has crafted a quietly comedic adaptation of Robert Glaudini’s play about working-class New Yorkers set up by mutual friends. (Glaudini did the screenplay, too.) The movie focuses on the awkwardness of a new relationship between people too inarticulate, or too self-aware, for witty banter. Instead, the humor comes out of the awkwardness, like his kitchen mishaps. (He’s learning to cook, and swim, to impress her). Or her odd combination of shyness and directness. (In a bedroom scene, she says she’s not ready for “penis penetration,” which could be bad sitcom dialog but is funny because Ryan doesn’t say it that way, but like a euphemism is too hard to think of.)

Basically, this is a lonely-boy-meets-lonely-girl story that only peripherally allows glimpses into the sadness that would have preceded the events shown. But neither is it mushy, and in the parallel story of his best friend’s imperfect marriage there is a cautionary tale. There may come a day, the couple tell him, that you learn something unpleasant about the other person, and that will stay with you no matter what. The movie teeters on the edge of being dark, but only goes there in one key scene. It isn’t quite stagy, but it’s definitely like a play, or a short story. Those who like “small,” character-driven movies should enjoy it.

IMDB link

viewed 9/23/10 at Ritz 5 [PFS screening] and reviewed 9/24/10 and 10/4/10