Z/Web

Sad tale about a man who has just buried his wife. We gradually learn that she committed suicide, and while he’s smiling and pretending everything’s okay, he’s really fraught with guilt, confusion, and despair. His initial suicide thoughts turn to drug abuse in the form of gasoline sniffing, and he becomes addicted, eventually losing his job and his friends as his behavior grows more and more bizarre. In order to explain the smell of gas around him, he tells his boss he’s got a remote control model airplane, and when she sends over her brother who’s a fan, he has to follow through and becomes interested in the hobby. The whole film the man’s carrying the suicide note left by his wife, still sealed in the envelope, afraid to open it. That was a bit disappointing for me: in the end it’s nothing special (perhaps that was the point), but I would have preferred if he’d never opened it and it had remained a mystery (far more powerful). Sad, poignant, with an excellent performance by Philip Hoffman, this is a haunting tale. It’s only 90 minutes but feels like hours as every event is traumatic. It’s like watching a bomb about to go off. When will it explode? The story isn’t much, but it’s the characters who drive this and make it work (mostly Hoffman’s character). It’s exactly the kind of critical piece intellectuals like. I found it disappointing, however, as so much is left unsaid and vague (especially the ending). Long portions of the film are Hoffman in a drugged daze — oh, that’s revealing. Still, it’s a fascinating experiment and worth seeing even if it’s ultimately not that profound.