Can't shake off its stagey roots and lacks any emotional punch.

| Aug 31, 2018

There's an improvisatory air, overlaid with quirky charm but never any bite. Hoffman's performance needs tougher, more focused direction.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Nov 4, 2011

| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 4, 2011

In places it has the airless feel of an over-workshopped piece, but is rescued by excellent performances: in particular Amy Ryan as Connie, Jack's shy would-be girlfriend.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 3, 2011

With fine and affecting performances all round, this is an enjoyably old-fashioned ensemble piece and a solid start to a career behind the camera.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 3, 2011

Take Jack's lead and give this one a miss.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Nov 3, 2011

Philip Seymour Hoffman puts his oar in with a tender, thoughtful adaption of Robert Glaudini's stage play. A little too measured to deliver an emotional punch, it's nevertheless beautifully acted and at times rather lovely.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 31, 2011

The magnitude of the acting overshadows the modest reach of the material.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Oct 7, 2010

Hoffman the director can't compete with Hoffman the film's star. And he can pretty much just stand in wonder at the layers co-star Amy Ryan brings to the party. The woman is a natural wonder.

| Original Score: B- | Oct 1, 2010

The movie's heart and story, both bleeding and mending, and its quartet of characters are hard to abandon -- and easy to care about.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 1, 2010

Jack's a good guy, and you root for him all the way to the end, but, wistfully, that doesn't make him an any more interesting everyday Joe than he is.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Oct 1, 2010

It belatedly reveals itself to be a meditation on the different kinds of loneliness, presenting isolation as a form of social stage fright.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Sep 30, 2010

Jack Goes Boating is extremely well-acted and full of moments I adored, it's just the final product itself that sadly left me cold.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Sep 24, 2010

Making his feature directing debut, Hoffman shows considerable generosity toward the other players, which was probably a good idea given his own listless performance as the mumbling title character.

| Sep 24, 2010

The adults-acting-badly genre is popular in the art-house scene -- Noah Baumbach perhaps being its king -- but despite its wincing moments, Jack has a much sweeter heart than its darker cousins.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 24, 2010

A subtle, slow-moving drama of moments and repercussions that works due to the talents of its cast and quality of its source material despite a few notable flaws.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Sep 24, 2010

Hoffman brings all the methodical excellence that has made him such a force as an actor to his first outing as a director with the tender story of awkward, middle-aged love, betrayal and consequences in Jack Goes Boating.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 24, 2010

Jack Goes Boating is a successful work of art. To see this movie is to feel that you've lived it.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 23, 2010

Hoffman's direction is a mixture of skill and showiness. He's attentive to all the actors, but he can't resist cute camera angles and Fellini-esque touches that don't quite fit this story.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Sep 23, 2010

This is one of those rare movies that genuinely likes its characters and wishes them the best; as agonizing as it can be to watch Jack fumble toward human connection, Hoffman knows the fumbling's the point.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Sep 23, 2010