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Tell Philip Seymour Hoffman that you found "Love Liza" frustrating, and he  will offer no apology. On the contrary, he'll thank you. To him, it's a sign that the film worked as he hoped.

      "When you watch it," he said, "all the frustrations you experience also  happen to Wilson [his character]. This film really allows you to live in  the moment with Wilson."       For the most part, these are not happy moments.

      "This guy comes home from work one day and finds his wife dead," he said,  summing up the drama, which opened Friday.    Wilson's wife, Liza, has committed suicide. The film covers the ensuing     six weeks as he struggles with the emotional shock. A good chunk of that  time is spent in a drug-induced stupor, a state that temporarily numbs the  pain but only delays the inevitable confrontation with reality. We won't spoil the ending, but don't expect a happily-ever-after climax    that ties up all the loose stri ngs in five minutes. It doesn't happen here        because it doesn't happen in real life.    "Because it doesn't allow Wilson to have an epiphany, people feel        frustrated," Hoffman said by phone. "Most films take a story like this and  compress two years into a month. That's not life. In real life, it takes  forever to get over something like this. Even just a broken heart can take        a long time. This is a death."      Many questions, few answers    Another source of frustration is curiosity over the suicide note Liza left  for Wilson. He refuses to read it, but he never says why.    Is he worried that she blames him for driving her to suicide? Is it  because he'll never hear from her again and he's afraid to bring closure  to that part of his life? Is it too emotionally painful to go back to the    day he found her dead? "Yes," Hoffman said. "I think all those reasons are valid. One of the  things I love about this film is that it's open to your own reasoning."    The script was written by his older brother, Gordy, a playwright. Although  he has no acting experience, Gordy Hoffman originally intended to play  Wilson. But when he showed the first draft to Philip, the actor  immediately announced that he wanted the role. Gordy quickly stepped aside    -- but he didn't step out of the picture.  "E verything you see up there [on the screen], it's Gordy," Hoffman said.

Hoffman's name helped secure funding and opened the door to casting  another marquee actor, Kathy Bates, as Wilson's mother-in-law. Besides, he  said, the script was not the sort of thing a novice would normally tackle.

Indeed, parts were tricky even for him, with 34 movies, including "Boogie  Nights" and "The Talented Mr. Ripley," to his credit.    "Sixty percent of the film involves emotional sadness that Wilson  experiences either alone or high," Hoffman said. "Silences are the    toughest thing to play."

There were no bad feelings on his brother's part, he said. In fact, they're already working on another film, "A Coat of Snow," with which     Gordy is making his directing debut. And as for this effort, "I have to admit that there were parts I thought  wouldn't work," Hoffman said. "But they do."