Lily Delsalles This movie gives us a part of a father's life, who is also an alcoholic. It is moving and touching is a good way: the story is not over dramatic, there is no burst of drama. It does feel very real; it feels like life, too. Stuff happens, and you have to deal with it. Maybe the storyline is a tad different from the classics, but it only gives more realism into it.The actors are also very good, they give us an excellent performance. Just as much the adults as the kids. They all are very believable, and all previous roles fade away to leave only the character of the movie.All in all, a must see that deserves much more recognition that what it is given.

counterfeit_vocalist Excellent movie. The cast is perfect, great length, plot, point, etc. I can't say enough great things about it. The best you'll ever feel watching a dark movie. Yeah, it's a feel good, dark movie. But not so much a comedy. And David Schwimmer is great. Don't worry about watching a "Ross" movie, cause this definitely isn't it. If you've seen it, you probably know what I'm talking about, if not, you don't know what you're missing. Sorry to sound so extreme on the descriptive words, as I generally try to avoid those reviews as being "extreme." But this is worthy of the praise. I've tried to get friends of mine to watch it, but they usually just dismiss it as another "Ross Geller" movie, which it is not.

Shtt If Jennifer Aniston can do it, than fellow " Friend " David Schwimmer can do it. What am I talking about here? I am talking about having a fellow cast member of that departed NBC sitcom appear in an indie movie that shows that actor's range. While I'm not going to say that Duane Hopwood is as good as The Good Girl was for Aniston, it does show that Schwimmer can play a part other than Ross.Duane Hopwood (Schwimmer) is a mess of a man. He works the 3 AM to 12 PM shift as a pit boss for Caesars Palace in Atlantic City. He is divorced to Linda (Janeane Garofalo), who is also the mother of his two daughters, Mary (Ramya Pratt) and Kate (Rachel Covey.) He believes that he is down on his luck, but that is mainly because he doesn't realize that he is an alcoholic. One night, Duane was going home with 8-year-old Mary asleep in the back seat of his car, when a traffic cop friend of his, Bobby (Lenny Venito), pulls him over for weaving on the road doing 84 miles per hour in a parkway. Linda, who is not normally vindictive against Duane, takes him to court to take away his visitation rights. She is understandably frightened that he will do something stupid like this again. Through the advice of his lawyer, Steve (Steve Schirripa), Duane realizes that he needs to make some changes in his life, since he loves his daughters and he still loves his ex-wife. She herself has moved on though. She is dating a gym trainer named "Joggin'" Bob Flynn (John Krasinski), a younger guy who gets on Duane's nerves, especially when Bob tells Kate that she is overweight and needs to work out. Duane also decides to take in a roommate. He has Anthony (Judah Friedlander), a security guard at Caesars who aspires to be a stand-up comic someday, move in with him. Anthony wants to move out of his mother's house and live closer to work, and since Duane was convicted of a DWI and had his driver's license revoked (he has to ride a bicycle to get around), Anthony figures that it is a win-win situation. Even though Anthony can be a little annoying, Duane accepts his offer to move in. Duane and Anthony also find themselves invited to Thanksgiving dinner at the house of Duane's neighbors. Fred (Dick Cavett) and Wally (Bill Buell), Duane's possibly gay next-door neighbors, have seen how down Duane has been, and they just want to bring him some holiday spirit. Just when he has decided to clean up his act, Duane gets in more trouble. His nice boss, Carl (Jerry Grayson), has to reprimand him for an incident involving a gambler. Mr. Alonso (Brian Tarantina) is a gambler who was causing trouble in the casino. To calm him down, Duane gave him a few slot tokens, which he used on a slot machine, and won him a jackpot. Unfortunately, Alonso was playing on a machine that had been claimed by an old lady named Mrs. Fillipi (Irma St. Paule), and she in turn complained to Carl about it. Faced with losing his job, Duane becomes really hammered and interrupts Anthony's stand-up debut. Anthony had finally been given the opportunity to do his act when the previous casino comic, Aldo (Vincent Riviezzo), had gotten a waitress pregnant, and Anthony's boss, Rahmn (Jeffrey V. Thompson), needed a fill-in. In the end, Duane will have to accept the changes in his life and deal with it, whether it is going to AA meetings, trying to move on with his life with his new bartender girlfriend Gina (Susan Lynch), or making peace with Linda.Actor Matt Mulhern wrote and directed this movie. It is his second movie, following 1998's Walking to the Waterline . He is apparently trying to create a movie world for himself, a la Kevin Smith's View Askewniverse, because Duane as a character appeared in Walking (Duane was played by " Spin City " actor Alan Ruck.) Mulhern also played a down-on-his-luck alcoholic, but his character was a TV actor. I wish I had seen Walking to compare it to this movie, because I like when an enterprising filmmaker attempts to create a world for himself.Schwimmer did a fantastic job. I wish that this movie had gotten a little more buzz, because it really showed off his acting skills. I know that he has been in several movies so far, but most of them have been sub par. Garofalo also got to show off her talent. I have seen her do both comedy and drama, and this is just another example of her ever-growing acting ability.Duane Hopwood might be just the thing to bring Schwimmer out of the shadow of Ross. Now…what can we do about Matt LeBlanc?

Kltty For David Schwimmer making a name in feature films has, and will most likely continue to be a tall order, as it's tough to shed an image honed for over a decade. His first post- Friends feature is 2005's Duane Hopwood , a small film praised by critics that was only given a limited theatrical release.Duane Hopwood is a man who once had it all, including a loving wife (Janeane Garofalo) and two daughters. Now that he's an alcoholic, all Duane has left is his cushy job as a pit boss at Caesar's Palace in Atlantic City. Now divorced, his downfall accelerates when he's stopped for drunk driving with his daughter in the car. A judge goes somewhat easy on Duane, only revoking his driver's license. He uses a bicycle to get to work until his friend and co-worker Anthony (Judah Friedlander) moves in with him and drives him to work. All that Duane wants is to spend time with his kids and get back with his wife, but numerous glasses of scotch and cans of beer always get in the way.To say David Schwimmer has arrived as a serious actor is a major understatement. His portrayal of a man spiraling downward fast is more than Oscar worthy, as this character's problems only start with dependence. His is a straightforward, dramatic account, but Schwimmer levels things out by bringing a sly sense of humor to the proceedings when necessary. Simply, David Schwimmer blew me away in this film.Duane Hopwood is tough at times to watch, as any man with children is bound to choke up watching the title character's hardships. Writer/director Matt Mulhern begins his film with a montage of Duane's good times, laughing with his wife and kids before making the pivotal decision of stopping at a bar one night—soon after, we have a front row seat to his demise. Mulhern's pacing is excellent; so much happens in the film that it's hard to believe the running time is a mere 80 minutes. Judah Friedlander, one of the great character actors, embodies Anthony, who gives Duane enough comedy in his life to keep him afloat. Dick Cavett also pops up as Duane's neighbor, and Janeane Garofalo gives her best performance in years as Duane's wife.Ending a film like this can be difficult. Mulhern treads this carefully, and pulls off a satisfying and realistic conclusion. One comes away feeling truly sorry for this loving father who is crippled by addiction, as so many people are, and his resulting inability to make rational and intelligent decisions. Hopefully, more people will discover this film now that it's widely available, if only to find that David Schwimmer has the acting chops to potentially enjoy a lucrative movie career. Oh, and who is this Ross guy, anyway? I've already forgotten.