to love in life, while holding onto her in his heart. After he reads the final words of the letter, "Love, Liza," Wilson strikes a match found inside the letter and burns the letter. The gas fumes in the house ignite his clothes. Wilson peels them off and throws them to the ground, only igniting more fumes on the carpet. In his underwear, he walks out of his burning house down the road in the middle of traffic. Cast Production When Gordy Hoffman wrote the screenplay for Love Liza, he did not originally envision his brother Philip for the lead role. Said Gordy, "In ’96, Phil and I just happened to both go home to Rochester for Labor Day weekend...I’d just finished Love Liza, and I gave it to him to read. I wasn’t even thinking about getting it made, it was just a matter of I’d finished something." Philip said of the script, "It was really, really good. I thought, It should get done, and then it was like, I’ll do it. It wasn’t like he asked me or I asked him.” The film spent over four years in development as the production sought financing and the script went through re-writes. Love Liza was filmed in Mobile, Alabama and New Orleans in early 2001. Director Todd Louiso flew out Los Angeles-based actors at his own expense to fill out the film's supporting cast. Reception Release Love Liza premiered in January 2002 at the Sundance Film Festival and went on to screen at the Toronto International Film Festival and London Film Festival. At Sundance, the film was awarded the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award for Gordy Hoffman. The film was picked up for distribution by Sony Pictures Classics and went into limited release on December 30, 2002, ultimately grossing $223,426 worldwide. Critical reception On review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes, Love Liza has an approval rating of 52% based on 87 reviews. The critics' consensus states: "Hoffman's performance is strong, but the lack of character development and story arc makes Love Liza unsatisfying." Rex Reed of The New York Observer praised Hoffman's performance, believing that it could have the same kind of impact on his career as Leaving Las Vegas had for Nicolas Cage. Todd McCarthy of Variety wrote "the situations in the film are fresh and inventive and just plain odd enough to keep interest reasonably high. Still, it’s doubtful that