# Maze (2000)

### reviewed by
Steve Rhodes

    MAZE
    A film review by Steve Rhodes
    Copyright 2001 Steve Rhodes
    RATING (0 TO ****):  *** 1/2

Rob Morrow writes, directs and stars in MAZE, a wonderfully sweet and honest film about Lyle Maze, an artist with Turret Syndrome, an obsessive disorder that causes sufferers to twitch wildly and call out. Morrow successfully avoids the pitfalls of such a subject, which is no small feat. It would be easy to make it so hard to watch that only hard core art house patrons would show up or to sugarcoat the material in order to make it more commercially viable. Instead, Morrow paints a realistic, poignant and hopeful story that will leave you dry-eyed but quite touched.

Simple things like dialing a phone are tricky for Lyle. Painting he can handle, but the results are sometimes unpredictable. He tries using a nude model, only to repeatedly throw paint on her. This episode, like much of the story, is played for poignancy rather than comedy. But the show isn't overly serious. Lyle is full of self-deprecating humor. "Trying to hold my hand is like an exercise in target practice," he remarks. In order to avoid being hurt, he has spent his life avoiding relationships.

Maze's best friend, Mike (Craig Sheffer), has his own compulsions. Only happy when he's saving the world, Mike is a doctor who works for Doctors Without Borders, an organization that sends physicians on long-term assignments to third world countries. Right now, he is about to leave for a seven month trip to Burundi, which isn't good timing since his girlfriend, Callie, a busy fashion photographer, has just discovered that she is pregnant. Knowing his inability to stay at home, she decides not to tell him and to get an abortion after he leaves. After she changes her mind, Lyle ends up being her coach and confidant, reading books about girlfriends helping girlfriends during pregnancy.

Laura Linney, Academy Award nominee for YOU CAN COUNT ON ME (the best film that almost no one saw last year), gives a warm performance as Callie. Linney, who many people first saw (impressively) as Truman's wife in THE TRUMAN SHOW, is a great character actress with a natural facial beauty. What moviegoers have not known until now is that she possesses a great body as well. Few actresses are willing to bare it all as Linney does in MAZE.

Linney can also be quite funny. When Lyle says, "Social interaction, as a whole, is overrated," she shoots back with, "I think tofu is overrated." Lyle, following his stack of pregnancy advice books, has fixed her just the right tofu-centric meal.

Even though it's predictable, MAZE's resolution is quite satisfying. All of the loose ends are tied up neatly but realistically. Morrow should feel a tremendous sense of accomplishment because MAZE works on so many different levels. It's a wonderful film and an uplifting one without a single maudlin moment.

MAZE runs 1:38. It is not yet rated but would be an R for full frontal nudity and language. The film would be acceptable for older teenagers.

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