The main character in “Jack Goes Boating” is a pudgy white guy who loves reggae music and sports dreadlocks under his knit cap. He’s a gentle soul searching for love without any of the traditional social skills needed to make that happen.
Who better than Philip Seymour Hoffman to not only play an iconoclast like Jack but direct him through his bumpy paces?
“Jack Goes Boating,” Hoffman’s directorial debut, offers flickers of the kind of indie movie magic Hoffman routinely brings to the big screen. But “Boating” still feels too calculated, as if making audiences squirm in their seats was just as important as telling a heart-breaking love story.
Hoffman’s Jack is quick with a shy smile and never leaves home without an old-school Walkman cranking out upbeat tunes. His best friend Clyde (John Ortiz) wants Jack to find love like he has. So Clyde and his wife, Lucy (Daphne Rubin-Vega), nudge Jack to consider Connie (Amy Ryan) as girlfriend material.
Both Jack and Connie are awkward to the core. They can’t muddle though a conversation without stumbling over basic etiquette. They’re as fragile as chipped China which makes them a perfect match. But as the two begin a circuitous courtship, Clyde and Lucy’s marriages starts crumbling.
The film, based on a 2007 play by Robert Glaudini, hits upon a fresh way to tell a love story. How do two wounded people open themselves to romance when they see the worst side of marriage up close?
Jack takes a clinical approach to the matter at hand. He asks Clyde to teach him how to swim and signs up for a personal cooking class. It’s a beautiful note struck perfectly by Hoffman – both as director and star. Hoffman stages Jack’s pool training in poetic fashion. It’s not just a grown man learning a skill others picked up as children. He’s building himself up, piece by piece, to be worthy of a woman’s heart.
Yet the film’s quieter moments don’t consistently ring true. Jack and Connie’s social behavior is so stilted it feels like they may have developmental issues. And we never get much of a glimpse as to why each is hurting so.
“I’m not ready yet for penis penetration,” Connie says to Jack during a romantic interlude, a loaded comment that delivers an uncomfortable laugh but hints at what’s missing in the back story.
Other emotional fireworks feel better served by the stage, not the screen. A momentous double date finds some wonderfully subtle moments before the script’s heavy handed tactics take over.
The co-story – the strain felt between Clyde and Lucy – also struggles to demand our attention.
“Jack Goes Boating” shows flashes of Hoffman’s directorial future, one which will hopefully find better vehicles to display his gifts in front of and behind the camera.
The Blu-ray extras include a pair of deleted scenes, a featurette examining the modest changes made from the stage version of “Boating” and a peek at the film’s New York setting.
(Photo: Philip Seymour Hoffman and Amy Ryan play two socially awkward singles trying to make a love connection in “Jack Goes Boating.” Anchor Bay Entertainment)
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Thanks for the concise review. I like Hoffman’s work in the film but you are so right. There is something missing. That missing element screams volumes and so reveals the film’s weaknesses. So many parts of “Jack Goes Boating” were painfully uncomfortable. In addition to the offputting “sex” scene you mentioned, I found the need for the film to have Any Ryan’s character get her face punched on the subway as a simplistic vehicle to get Hoffman to care for her in the hospital cliche.