User Reviews

I just saw the film and like others on this board, my wife didn't get what had just happened in the film. I explained it to her as being this:

At the end of the movie you see Gray and his girlfriend in the theater watching a musical version of a film starring a girl named Mia. Gray's girlfriend says "You're going to leave me for her one day, aren't you?". I believe all that preceded this scene happened in Gray's mind as a daydream about what his life would be like if he did get that chance.

The reason I think this is because I have done exactly that when a comment from someone has set me off daydreaming.

If you think I am way off base, feel free to let me know like I know people like to do.

This is one of the worst and convoluted movies I have ever seen. At the end the police were not seeing Gray as Gray, but as John, which means that he was never who he thought he was, and yet his actress wife walks towards his shot body at the end as if she were his wife, but just a minute earlier she was smoking and laughing. The ending of this movie left both me and my brother very cold. It was as if they just ran out of film and ended it.

This is a miserable movie about the miserable movie star life of a miserable movie star. It's deliberately confusing and unintentionally confused. The script strives for sarcasm and sympathy in equal measure, but achieves only indifference. The direction is equally undecided. The acting is okay, yet watching Giovanni Ribisi's performance is like looking at a man struggling on a Stairmaster set at the highest level; there's a lot of obvious effort but he never goes anywhere. This film has nothing to say and makes a convoluted production out of not saying it.

Gray Evans (Giovanni Ribisi) is a movie star. He has a hot blonde movie star wife (Franka Potente), a perky assistant (Judy Greer), a private investigator (Jared Harris) and various other ass-kissing associates and "friends". He's also desperately unhappy with himself and pretty much everything in the world, except for his dreams/daydreams/hallucinations of a girl named Shana (Christina Ricci). He's also paranoid about both a possible stalker (Jason Lee) and his wife getting hit on by Elvis Costello. Gray wanders into an independent video store one day and becomes "John Hinkley loves Jodie Foster" obsessed with a perfectly normal couple (Joshua Jackson and Marisa Coughlan). Gray gets more and more disturbed and things end tragically.

You may have noticed that my description of I Love Your Work's plot doesn't actually contain a lot of, you know, plot. That's not a mistake. There are things that happen in the film. They just don't connect together or add up to lead in any narrative direction or toward any thematic conclusion. All it has is a generalized antipathy for the realities of celebrity without actually being honest about any of those realities.

I'm not sure, but I think this story is supposed to be about how the pressures of stardom destroy Gray Evans heart and mind. I'm not sure about that because there's no connection ever made between the two. The movie highlights the unpleasant aspects of fame and Gray displays a bucketful of emotional problems, yet it never manages to explain or demonstrate how the former caused the latter. It seems like Gray would have been just as screwed up as a grocery clerk or a stock broker.

I Love Your Work has no idea if it's about Gray Evans the man, Gray Evans the movie star or Gray Evans the victim of movie stardom. It's also at least 15 to 20 minutes too long and has an ending that is wrongly hilarious no matter how you look at it. Either these filmmakers were trying to be funny even though it is completely inappropriate for the story they're telling, or they were trying to be poignant and botched it so badly it would get a belly laugh out of the couple from American Gothic.

If you're a struggling actor and filmmaker and would be comforted at the thought that the folks more successful than you are awful wretches leading lives of bitter torment, you might enjoy this movie. Everyone else would probably be better off polishing up their Sudoku skills.

What was this movie really about? I have no idea, actually a lot of ideas. I hope one of them is correct. Isn't it weird that the main character actually acts a lot like Adam Golderg does in his movies. It was a pretty good performance though, Boiler Room-like. This movie basically says that celebrities should not stalk regular folks, it can be dangerous. Or the grass is greener on the other side, or this explains Tom Cruise. Maybe even the fact that most of these celebrities end up as Scientology followers cos fame in Hollywood just makes you crazy. Well if its something most people don't understand then its either termed as genius or art. I think its just art, after-all art has no set definitions, at least thats what I think.

Fearing he is being stalked, a film star not so slowly becomes his own worst nightmare and no one seems to care. With no stakes at hand, -- until the only-slightly tense last ten minutes -- no character provides opposition, no character is challenged. This vital conflict seems to be left to the unfortunate viewer who must fight to stay seated. Giovanni Ribisi and a host of other very talented actors try desperately to drag the broken pieces of this pathetic story into view. When it is not necessary for Ribisi to dramatize his unhappy character's descent into madness, his face continues to read, "Someone, please, get me out of this picture!" There are far too many characters and, worse, the characters sometimes exchange roles, to illustrate the film star's confusion and significantly add to the viewer's. The director's ambitious intent seems to be to create an extended Twilight Zone episode, dark, twisted, moral, and full of cheap effects. It never quite works, though there are a few, small moments of disconnected pleasure drawn from the incomparable Ribisi's pained performance and bits of his numerous but admirable supporting players' equally extraordinary commitment. I Love Your Work might go over well in Sweden, where audience distress is sometimes considered evidence of art.

The life of the so-called celebrities is at the center of this film. Adam Goldberg, an actor himself, directed and contributed to the screen play. It's a good thing he decided to stay behind the camera this time, something other novel directors don't seem to understand in their attempt of making their own statement in the movies.

Gray Evans, appears to be a paranoid actor. On the one hand, he welcomes his status as a leading man in the business. On the other, he sees stalkers with most of the people he comes in contact. Gray, who is married to his idol, Mia, an actress, who he has greatly admired before their marriage. Mia is the source of what appears to be his own self-destruction. After all, how many premieres and red carpets can one take and still stay sane?

Gray, who can't walk the Los Angeles streets without being recognized, suspects one of his fans for stalking him. The casual visit to a book store puts him in contact with a man who he also suspects is the source of all the bad publicity about him that starts appearing in the tabloids. The gossip is that his marriage is about to end. Gray also starts reflecting on his past relationship with the mysterious Shana, as he mixes reality and illusion. He has to rely on an Israeli security man named Yahud to protect him from the danger lurking outside.

Giovanni Ribisi, who plays Gray, is a young actor who has proved he has what it takes to do good work. His work suffers because of the demands on his playing his obsession. Franka Potente, a good German actress is seen as Mia, the object of Gray's affections. Jared Harris has some good moments, ditto Joshua Jackson, and the rest of the cast. Vince Vaughan and Elvis Costello appear as themselves.

Perhaps Mr. Goldberg will find the right material on his next time directing.

I never got it! How could you even tell he was a movie star? Where was the set he worked on? Besides the trailer! I never got the impact that he was a really big movie star or what it was he did, etc. Did I miss something? But eh, really like RIBISI anyway. So he liked this girl who's boyfriend worked at the video store? Stalking? I could not even tell what was going on.. No good character actors. Why do you need 10 lines to review a movie? This is dumb rule with a movie that shows little.

Peace

Dirk