''Jack Goes Boating'' is a 2010 American romantic drama film directed by

Philip Seymour Hoffman Philip Seymour Hoffman (July 23, 1967 – February 2, 2014) was an American actor. Known for his distinctive supporting and character roles—typically lowlifes, eccentrics, underdogs, and misfits—he acted in many films and theatrical produ ...

(in his only career directorial effort) and stars Hoffman in the title role, as well as

Amy Ryan Amy Beth Dziewiontkowski, known professionally as Amy Ryan, is an American actress of stage and screen. A graduate of New York's High School of Performing Arts, she is an Academy Award nominee and two-time Tony Award nominee. Ryan began her pr ...

John Ortiz John Ortiz (born May 23, 1968) is an American actor. He is known for his antagonist role as Arturo Braga in ''Fast & Furious'' (2009) and ''Fast & Furious 6'' (2013), and Clyde in ''Jack Goes Boating'' (2010), which earned him a nomination for t ...

and

Daphne Rubin-Vega Daphne Rubin-Vega ( Vega; born November 18, 1969) is a Panamanian-American actress, dancer, and singer-songwriter. She is best known for originating the roles of Mimi Marquez in the Broadway musical ''Rent'' and Lucy in the Off-Broadway play ''J ...

. The film's script was written by Robert Glaudini, based on his 2007 play ''

Jack Goes Boating ''Jack Goes Boating'' is a 2010 American romantic drama film directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman (in his only career directorial effort) and stars Hoffman in the title role, as well as Amy Ryan, John Ortiz and Daphne Rubin-Vega. The film's scr ...

''. The film's cast was mostly the same as that of the play's premiere at

The Public Theater The Public Theater is a New York City arts organization founded as the Shakespeare Workshop in 1954 by Joseph Papp, with the intention of showcasing the works of up-and-coming playwrights and performers.Epstein, Helen. ''Joe Papp: An American Li ...

, although Amy Ryan replaced Beth Cole (who has a cameo as a teacher). The film was produced by

Overture Films Overture Films was an American film production and distribution company and a subsidiary of Starz (then subsidiary of Liberty Media). It was founded in November 2006 by Chris McGurk and Danny Rosett. Through its affiliated companies Anchor Bay E ...

and

Relativity Media Relativity Media is an American media company founded in 2004 by Lynwood Spinks and Ryan Kavanaugh. The company brokered film finance deals and later branched into film production and other entertainment ventures. The company was commerciall ...

. It premiered at the

26th Sundance Film Festival The 26th annual Sundance Film Festival was held from January 21, 2010 until January 31, 2010 in Park City, Utah. Award winners *Grand Jury Prize: Documentary - '' Restrepo'' *Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic - ''Winter's Bone'' *World Cinema Jury Prize ...

and was later released in the United States on September 17, 2010.

Plot

Jack is a shy limousine driver who lives with and works for his uncle. His best friend and co-worker Clyde and Clyde's wife Lucy set up a dinner date at their house with Lucy's new co-worker, Connie, who has intimacy issues of her own. As Jack and Connie get to know each other, he sets his sights on learning to swim so he can take her boating when summer comes; with Clyde eager to help him learn, they begin swimming lessons. Jack soon decides that summer is too far away to wait for a date with Connie, so he decides that a nice dinner would be a good place to start. When Connie says that no one has ever cooked a meal for her, Jack decides that he wants to be the chef and cook for her. This adds another set of lessons to be learned as Jack does not know how to cook, so Clyde sets Jack up with a chef friend of Lucy's to learn the culinary art form. As Jack strives to perfect swimming and cooking, he begins to get a look behind the veil of the marriage of his friends, which is straining under the weight of mutual occasional infidelities. As the troubles of their marriage become increasingly apparent, Jack and Connie grow closer: Her general mistrust gradually erodes, and he gains confidence and skill in relating to her and in pursuing his dream job. The film's last scene has Jack and Connie walking off happily, as a newly single Clyde looks on ambivalently.

Cast

as Jack *

as Connie *

as Clyde *

as Lucy * Thomas McCarthy as Dr. Bob *Salvatore Inzerillo as Cannoli *Richard Petrocelli as Uncle Frank * Harry Seddon as the Teacher *

Lola Glaudini Lola Glaudini (born November 24, 1971) is an American actress. She is best known for her portrayal of Elle Greenaway on CBS's ''Criminal Minds'' and for her role as Deborah Ciccerone-Waldrup on HBO's ''The Sopranos''. Early life Glaudini was ...

as Italian Woman *

Stephen Adly Guirgis Stephen Adly Guirgis is a Pulitzer Prize Winning American playwright, screenwriter, director, and actor. He is a member and a former co-artistic director of New York City's LAByrinth Theater Company.Blake, Leslie (Hoban)"Comin' Uptown" ''Theater ...

as MTA worker *

Elizabeth Rodriguez Elizabeth Rodriguez is an American actress. She is best known for her role as Aleida Diaz in the Netflix comedy-drama series ''Orange Is the New Black'' (2013–2019). She received a Tony Award nomination, and won an Outer Critics Circle Award ...

as Waldorf Event Assistant *Isaac Schinazi as Pastry Chef *Mason Pettit as Drunk Man on Subway

Production

Robert Glaudini’s play was originally performed in 2007 by the

LAByrinth Theater Company LAByrinth Theater Company is a non-profit, Off-Broadway theater company based in New York City. Led by Philip Seymour Hoffman and John Ortiz for many years, its artistic director is Ortiz. The New York Times described it in 2014 as "an ethnical ...

, with Hoffman, Ortiz and Rubin-Vega performing in the same roles that they play in the film version. The film was co-financed by

(known for ''

The Men Who Stare at Goats ''The Men Who Stare at Goats'' (2004) is a non-fiction work by Jon Ronson concerning the U.S. Army's exploration of New Age concepts and the potential military applications of the paranormal. The title refers to attempts to kill goats by staring ...

'' and '' Law Abiding Citizen'') and Big Beach Films (known for '' Little Miss Sunshine'' and ''

Away We Go ''Away We Go'' is a 2009 American comedy-drama directed by Sam Mendes and written by Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida. The film's two leads are John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph. It is Mendes's first film without Thomas Newman's collaboration. Plot Ve ...

''). In addition to directing and acting, Hoffman acted as one of the two executive producers with the other being costar John Ortiz. Pre-production and development for the film took place in January 2009. Filming began in New York in February 2009. The Clinton Diner of

Maspeth, Queens Maspeth is a residential and commercial community in the borough of Queens in New York City. It was founded in the early 17th century by Dutch and English settlers. Neighborhoods sharing borders with Maspeth are Woodside to the north; Sunnyside ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

is a featured location in the film. Post-production took place in October 2009 and the film was completed in March 2010.

Release

The film premiered on January 23, 2010 at the

. It was later distributed by

and

and it was released on four screens in

and

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

on September 17, 2010. It opened to $28,916 for a $7,229 per screen average. In September and October, the film expanded reaching a maximum of 90 screens. The film's domestic theatrical run came to an end in December 2010, with the domestic gross totaling $541,992. The film was later released on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

on January 18, 2011. Outside of the U.S, the film was featured in a number of foreign film festivals including the

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a perman ...

, the

Torino Film Festival The Torino Film Festival (also called the Turin Film Festival, TFF) is an international film festival held annually in Turin, Italy. Held every November, it is the second largest film festival in Italy, following the Venice Film Festival. It was f ...

, the

Tokyo International Film Festival The is a film festival established in 1985. The event was held biennially from 1985 to 1991 and annually thereafter. Along with the Shanghai International Film Festival, it is one of Asia's competitive film festivals, and is considered to be the ...

, and the

Dubai International Film Festival The Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF, ar, مهرجان دبي السينمائي الدولي) is the leading film festival in the Arab region. The 12th edition of DIFF took place from December 9 – 16, 2015. In 2018, the DIFF announc ...

. The film grossed $95,487 overseas, bringing its current global total gross to $637,479. It was later released in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

on November 4, 2011.

Reception

Critical reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film has an approval rating 68% based on 105 reviews, with an average rating of 6.3/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "It's made the journey from stage to screen somewhat worse for wear, but ''Jack Goes Boating'' remains a sensitive, well-acted character study." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

the film has a score of 64 out of 100 based on 27 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". It was especially noted for the performances of the four leading actors, and was compared favorably with similar romantic films from the 1950s, such as '' Marty'' (1955).

Simon Hattenstone Simon Hattenstone (born 29 December 1962 in Salford, England) is a British journalist and writer. He is a features writer and interviewer for ''The Guardian''.

of ''The Guardian'' also called the film "refreshing" as it showed Hoffman playing for a change "a regular dysfunctional guy rather than a freaky dysfunctional guy". Linda Barnard of the ''

Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and pa ...

'' said "the dialogue makes the movie feel more a creature of stage than screen", but also noted, "The performances are ego-free and often funny", and concluded "Hoffman admirably works both sides of the camera with ''Jack Goes Boating'', a reminder that love is indeed where you find it and works best when we don’t look too closely."

Awards

''Jack Goes Boating'' was nominated for four major awards in 2010. For his performance as Clyde, John Ortiz was nominated for a

Gotham Award The Gotham Awards () are American film awards, presented annually to the makers of independent films at a ceremony in New York City, the city first nicknamed "Gotham" by native son Washington Irving, in an issue of ''Salmagundi'', published on ...

in the category of Breakthrough Actor. The award went to

Ronald Bronstein Ronald Bronstein is an American film director, screenwriter, editor and actor An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern ...

for his performance in '' Daddy Longlegs''. The film was also nominated for three Independent Spirit Awards. John Ortiz was again nominated for his performance in the Best Supporting Male category but lost to John Hawkes in ''

Winter's Bone ''Winter's Bone'' is a 2010 American coming-of-age mystery drama film directed by Debra Granik. It was adapted by Granik and Anne Rosellini from the 2006 novel of the same name by Daniel Woodrell. The film stars Jennifer Lawrence as a povert ...

''. Daphne Rubin-Vega was also nominated for her performance as Lucy in the Best Supporting Female category but lost to

Dale Dickey Diana Dale Dickey (born September 29, 1961) is an American character actress who has worked in theater, film, and television. She began her career on stage, performing in the 1989 Broadway version of ''The Merchant of Venice'', before appearing ...

in ''

''. Robert Glaudini was nominated in the Best First Screenplay category but lost to

Lena Dunham Lena Dunham (, born May 13, 1986) is an American writer, director, actress, and producer. She is known as the creator, writer, and star of the HBO television series ''Girls (TV series), Girls'' (2012–2017), for which she received several Emmy ...

for ''

Tiny Furniture ''Tiny Furniture'' is a 2010 American comedy-drama film written, directed by, and starring Lena Dunham. The film premiered at South by Southwest, where it won the award for Best Narrative Feature, screened at such festivals as Maryland Film Fes ...

''.

Soundtrack

A soundtrack album for the film featuring the following songs is available from Lakeshore Records.

References

External links

* * * *
''Jack Goes Boating''
at

*{{Rotten Tomatoes, jack_goes_boating, Jack Goes Boating 2010 romantic comedy films 2010 films American romantic comedy films 2010 directorial debut films American films based on plays Films shot in New York City Films set in New York City Big Beach (company) films 2010 independent films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films