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Jack Goes Boating

Jack Goes Boating

Philip Seymour Hoffman

  • Country: USA
  • Year: 2009
  • Language: English
  • Producer: Marc Turtletaub, Peter Saraf, Beth O'Neil, Emily Ziff
  • Executive Producer: Philip Seymour Hoffman, John Ortiz
  • Screenplay: Bob Glaudini
  • Runtime: 91
  • Programmes:

Adapted from Bob Glaudini's acclaimed Off Broadway play, Jack Goes Boating is a tale of love, betrayal, friendship and grace centered around two working-class New York City couples. The film stars John Ortiz, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Amy Ryan and Philip Seymour Hoffman, with Hoffman making his feature directorial debut.

Adaptation,  Comedy,  First Time Feature,  Romance

screening times

    • Sunday September 12
    • 1:00:00 PM
    • ISABEL BADER THEATRE
    • Sunday September 19
    • 9:00:00 PM
    • SCOTIABANK THEATRE 2

Note: indicates Premium Screening.

official description

It’s hard to pin down exactly what makes Philip Seymour Hoffman so good. There is a chameleon element about him, an ability to transform his bearing and gestures from the prickly introversion of Synecdoche, New York to the ballsy bluster of Charlie Wilson’s War to the complex mélange of id and superego that defined his Academy Award®-winning performance in Capote. Among his peers Hoffman is unsurpassed, but there remains a mystery about his craft, about how he constructs his characters and what matters to him most as an actor. Jack Goes Boating offers a glimpse. As both actor and director, Hoffman grants himself the artistic autonomy to shape this film like never before.

Hoffman plays Jack, a New York limo driver who makes a big show of his love for reggae music and Rastaman affectations. Clyde (John Ortiz) is his co-worker and only friend. Clyde and his wife Lucy (Daphne Rubin-Vega) have a marriage plagued by a deep wound of infidelity, but at least they still care enough to fight about it. Since Jack seems painfully awkward around women, Lucy sets him up with Connie (Amy Ryan). Their first date is sweet, timid and good enough to get Jack’s hopes up. He invites Connie over to his modest apartment for a second date. Never denying its theatrical origins, Jack Goes Boating finds its heart in an extended scene where Jack prepares for and then carries out his grand plan for the most perfect date possible. Of course, it’s anything but.

Drawing on a play by Bob Glaudini (Hoffman was a cast member in the original off-Broadway production at their theatre, LAByrinth), Hoffman’s feature debut is modest and insightful and imbued with warmth and deep feeling for its characters. This is a film to fall in love with.

Cameron Bailey

director bio

Philip Seymour Hoffman was born in Fairport, New York and earned his B.F.A. in drama from the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. He made his acting film debut in 1991 and has since appeared in such films as Boogie Nights (97), The Big Lebowski (98), Magnolia (99), The Talented Mr. Ripley (99), Almost Famous (00), Punch Drunk Love (02), The Savages (07), Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead (07), Synechdoche, New York (08) and The Invention of Lying (09). He was nominated for two Golden Globe Awards and two Academy Awards for his roles in Charlie Wilson’s War (07) and Doubt (07) and won both awards for his role in Capote (05). Jack Goes Boating (10) is his feature directorial debut.

full credits

Principal Cast: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Ryan, John Ortiz, Daphne Rubin-Vega
Producer: Marc Turtletaub, Peter Saraf, Beth O'Neil, Emily Ziff
Executive Producer: Philip Seymour Hoffman, John Ortiz
Cinematographer: Mott Hupfel
Editor: Brian A. Kates
Sound: Ron Bochar
Music: Evan Lurie
Production Designer: Thérèse DePrez

Canadian Distributor: Alliance Films  
International Sales Agent: Celluloid Dreams
Production Company: Big Beach
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