Review of Living Out Loud (1998) by *Jill * — 11 Apr 2008

This movie speaks to me on many levels. At the time of its release in 1998, it didn't make much of an impact and I would be surprised if most people have even heard of it, but the film is a bittersweet ode to lonelienss.

It's a brilliant character study of two different individuals, a recent divorcee (Holly Hunter) living in her luxurious Manhattan apartment and how she comes to connect with the building's elevator operator, who has just lost his young daughter and is dealing with mounting money problems, the consequence of leading the life of a slacker.

Hunter turns here her most touching performance, eclipsing even the heights she climbed with in 1995's The Piano. She goes through the motions of loneliness marvelously, with the emotiveness and the range that only an actress of her calibre could do and the film ultimately finds a cure to this despairing situation (via self-acceptance) when she finds those rare, but valuable people that one is lucky to encounter in life.

Danny DeVito is quietly effective and touching in a radically different performance to the black, raunchy comedies he likes to do. Queen Latifah, a rapper, is a revelation here as a jazz lounge singer.

The lady's got pipes.