Jack Goes Boating review

Seymour Hoffman's Broadway adaptation is an ambitious first directorial project

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Philip Seymour Hoffman, consummate actor – and great director? On the basis of this, his directorial debut, not just yet.

Jack is adapted from an off-Broadway play Hoffman and co-stars John Ortiz and Daphne Rubin-Vega appeared in – and it feels like it.

Jack (Hoffman) and Clyde (Ortiz) are NYC limo drivers; Clyde’s married to Lucy (Rubin-Vega) but Jack’s a shy loner – so Clyde sets him up with Lucy’s colleague, Connie (Amy Ryan).

As their relationship slowly blossoms, Clyde and Lucy’s marriage fractures.

It’s all a tad schematic, and the direction is workmanlike but cautious.