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Instead of seeing 'Love Liza' the day it opened, I opted to drag some friends to 'Punch Drunk Love,' which was showing at our second-run-budget theater (they're all Adam Sandler fans who couldn't have cared less about Phil, despite seeing Magnolia, so they didn't know what they thought of the movie --but that's a different story). Yesterday, I decided I'd waited long enough for 'Liza,' so I went to the local 'arthouse' theater to see it.

I really wish I'd seen it the day it opened, instead of waiting as long as I did.

I'm a big fan of Todd Louiso, who directed, so he and Phil were reasons enough to go.  Even if you're not a diehard fan of The PSH, however, there are things to love in the movie.

May contain spoilers, but I'll try to not ruin everything.

The first few minutes are almost completely silent, except for a few times Phil sighs.  He comes home from work (we're to assume a day or so after Liza --his wife-- died) with a bouquet of flowers, sags against the wall, stares into space, and curls up on the floor to try to sleep.  When sleeping doesn't work, he goes to the master bedroom --under one of the pillow, his finds an envelope marked, "Wilson" (his character).  He stares at it for a minutes, says, "you wrote me a note."

That moment, I think, is my favorite in the whole film --it sets the general mood (melancholy, with some happy undertones), establishes plot, and lets Phil be Phil. 

The rest of the film is gorgeous --though the reasons why Wilson gets involved in huffing (first car gas, then fuel for remote-controlled airplanes) are sketchy, that doesn't really matter, in the long-run.  His hallucinations when high are filmed well, and Phil does an excellent job of portraying a man with an addiction.  You can see it on his face, even when he's screaming at a diner employee who won't give him a phone book, and when he's sitting on a box in nothing but a bathrobe while having a discussion with a woman from work.

The suicide note he finds under his pillow at the beginning haunts him throughout the film, until he opens it in the second-to-last scene.  It's never revealed why Liza kills herself, and her note doesn't reveal much about her, but I thought it was satisfying.  Had it been overly-sappy that would have killed the whole movie.

Despite the sadness, I walked away from the movie feeling good (and not just because of The PSH, though seeing him in a role for the first time always makes me giddy), though I can't explain why.  Maybe I'm just strange! 

I absolutely recommend 'Love Liza' to Phil fans --he's on screen 99 percent of the time, for one thing; for another, it's his best performance to date, even though I say that about every new movie he does!  I recommend it to non-fans, too --for anyone who wants to see an intelligent film (this is not a Hollywood drug movie; it doesn't glorify anything, nothing blows up, there are no high-speed car chases, etcetera), and anyone who has a mad love for Todd Louiso (who played Dick in 'High Fidelity') or Kathy Bates, who plays Wilson's mother-in-law.

-- Wendy