Cinefile

Note: Cinefile covered the Sundance USA screening of Jack Goes Boating back in January, with special guests Philip Seymour Hoffman and John Ortiz! Watch that Movie Nation video here.

Jack Goes Boating is a very well acted movie. How could it not be? It stars and is directed by Oscar winner Philip Seymour Hoffman and he is joined onscreen by the always interesting to watch John Ortiz (Miami Vice, Before Night Falls) and The Wire’s Amy Ryan. Throw in a notably strong turn by stage veteran Daphne Rubin-Vega and the recipe for ripe performances is tip-fucking-top. On a lesser note however, the film never really takes off on any grand “cinematic” leap—perhaps due to its origins as a stage play. Hoffman, a new film director, definitely has the beats of his actors’ rhythm down but the assured footing of a seasoned film provocateur is understandably absent. We know that stage material can scorch off the screen; look no further than James Foley’s direction in the magnificent Glengarry Glen Ross. Boating isn’t that film however.

In the titular role of Jack, Hoffman dons a skull cap which covers his Rastafarian dreads, drives for a limo company with his buddy Clyde (Ortiz) and is altogether content with the way things are. Still, Clyde and his beau Lucy (Rubin-Vega)—being the warm friends they are to Jack—would love to see him with a romantic interest. And Jack, being the good sport he is, agrees to partake in a blind double date to meet Connie (Ryan). One could already guess that an earnest romance begins to permeate between Jack and Connie and the pair of thesps is a delight to watch onscreen.

Added, Ortiz and Hoffman walk away—or swim away actually—with some of the best film’s best scenes, which involve Clyde teaching Jack how to swim at the local YMCA. It’s here where Hoffman injects the film’s slight visual panache, which is ironic enough considering that the stage version had the pair of actors just mime their way through these sections. Ryan, who turned heads with her Oscar nominated role in Gone Baby Gone, continues to shine on the silver screen. She’s sweet and appealing without having to resort to any Eat Pray Love-type theatrics. She plays it straight.

And thankfully, the film doesn’t dip into broad rom-com situations either. Yet, whatever urgent drama the film does offer, comes too quickly in the boisterous third act; which includes a hookah, a kitchen fire, a botched dinner, an emotional couples meltdown and a fingers transaction against a door hinge (I’ll let your imagination figure out the science of that last one). But even in the misshaping of Jack Goes Boating, lies a digestible enough narrative comprised of engaging characters, a good music soundtrack and the promise of a fall season that looks to step away from the summer tom foolery and into more substantial material.