LOVE LIZA (2003)

The upside: It's only 90 minutes. The downside: It's an overly depressing self-described ''comic tragedy'' that produces nary a laugh. After his wife takes her own life, Web designer Wilson (Hoffman) staggers hopelessly through his, reluctant to read the suicide note she left him and sniffing gasoline to numb the pain. The attempts at levity come across awkwardly in an otherwise bleak, ambling tale, and while Hoffman and Bates (as Wilson's mother-in-law) are predictably solid, the movie simply doesn't match the weight of their performances.