I Love Your Work (2003)

User Rating:

5.3/10   

Director:

Adam Goldberg

Writers:

Adrian Butchart (writer)
Adam Goldberg (writer)

Genre:

Drama | Mystery

Plot:

The film follows fictional movie star Gray Evans through the disintegration of his marriage, his gradual mental breakdown...

Plot Keywords:

Marriage | Obsession | Movie Star | Mental Breakdown | Fame

Cast

Marisa Coughlan	...	Jane
Judy Greer	...	Samantha
Shalom Harlow	...	Charlotte
Jared Harris	...	Yehud
Joshua Jackson	...	John
Nicky Katt	...	Goateed Man
Jason Lee	...	Larry Hortense
Franka Potente	...	Mia Lang
Giovanni Ribisi	...	Gray Evans
Christina Ricci	...	Shana
Vince Vaughn	...	Stiev
Elvis Costello	...	Himself
Eric Siegel	...	Phil
John Tottenham	...	Jett Trask
Dan Bucatinsky	...	The Director

MPAA:

Rated R for language, sexuality, some drug content and violent images.

Runtime:

111 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Certification:

Australia:MA | Germany:12 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Cyan Pictures

Movie Connections:

Features Singin' in the Rain (1952)

Soundtrack:

Stopwatch

Muddled and misanthropic

I saw this film at the 2003 Toronto International Film Festival.

Giovanni Ribisi is a movie star living what I hope is a caricature of a movie star's life (although in Hollywood, there seems to be no such thing as a caricature). He's becoming paranoid, seeing stalkers everywhere and suspecting his movie-star wife of infidelity (with Elvis Costello, no less). Then he meets a fan who seems so normal, and proceeds to screw up this man's life, all the while descending into some sort of madness, and flashing back to a time in his life when he seemed to have normalcy and real love. This film is a bit of a mess, actually. Lots of flashbacks and movie stars portraying movie stars portraying movie stars. It got a bit too "meta" at times, and the narrative was muddled. There was also an ambiguity about the whole fame thing, which is not very new, and frankly, hard for an audience to sympathize with.

I love movies and hate the movie business. So, apparently, does Adam Goldberg. So how come I didn't like this more?

(7/10)

P.S. Before the screening, I saw Giovanni Ribisi walking down the lineup filming the crowd with his camcorder. In addition to Ribisi and director Adam Goldberg, Franka Potente, Christina Ricci, and Shalom Harlow were also at the screening. Of course, after seeing the caustic way in which fans (and stars) are portrayed in the film, it would be just about impossible to say anything to any of them, even if you could get close.