Living Out Loud movie review & film summary (1998)

The movie has been written and directed by Richard LaGravenese, the gifted screenwriter of “A Little Princess,” “The Bridges of Madison County” and “Beloved.” He's more interested in characters and dialogue than in shaping everything into a conventional story. He aims for the kind of bittersweet open ends that life itself so often supplies; he doesn't hammer his square pegs into round holes, as James L. Brooks did by insisting in “As Good As It Gets” that the Jack Nicholson character could, should or would ever be able to live happily with anyone else.

The movie opens with Judith (Hunter) breaking up with her husband of 15 years (Martin Donovan). He's been cheating on her--and, worse, insulting her intelligence by thinking he could get away with it. Later we meet Pat (DeVito), an elevator operator whose wife has thrown him out because of his gambling debts and a whole lot more, and whose daughter is dying. Pat's brother, a saloon keeper, offers him a job, but Pat clings to his independence. The elevator job is temporary. He has plans.

To be cut adrift in uncertainty and grief is something to share, and soon they are sharing it. Feeling sorry for him, and having drunk too much, which she often does, she hugs him, causing unruly feelings to stir within Pat. He subtly borrows $200 (the loan sharks are after him), and when he repays her, he brings along a bottle of wine, and she confesses she saw through his story about why he needed the money, but gave it to him anyway, because ... because ...

Well, because it was a point of contact, in a life that has become empty. (She has a day job as a caregiver for a singularly uncareworthy old lady.) Will they go on to share their innermost feelings and fall in love, as in a standard plot? Not necessarily. He thinks she's the perfect woman. But when she drinks she fantasizes about hunks, which is maybe how she wound up with a creep for a husband.

Need draws them together. Fantasies keep them apart. And then an extraordinary third character enters their lives. This is Liz Bailey (Queen Latifah), a torch singer in a nightclub where Judith likes to drink too many martinis, smoke too many cigarettes and display too much grief. Liz is tall, striking, carries herself with placid self-confidence and wears dresses that display her magnificent bosom--not as an advertisement, but more in a spirit of generosity toward the world.

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