Released: June 18th, 1993
Starring: Rob Morrow, Laura Linney, Craig Sheffer
Writer/Director: Rob Morrow, Bradley White and Nicole Burdette/Rob Morrow
[Review may contain spoilers. Please watch movie before reading, unless you don't care. Most of these films have already been released for a while, so they should be readily available.]
***
Love stories can be told in many ways, and ever since the time of Shakespeare, they have. You have your straight forward star-crossed lover to your destined to be together, and everything in between. With that type of saturation in a genre, it's always the unique ones that draw my interest.
"Maze" is definitely a unique story. Rob Morrow plays artist Lyle Maze, who was diagnosed with Tourette's Syndrome as a child, but has found away to be successful. Maze is just looking for inspiration for his next art piece, and ends up falling in love with his best friend's pregnant girlfriend (Linney). The majority of the movie is their budding relationship as he look after her while boyfriend, Mike (Sheffer), is out of the country with Doctors Without Boarders.
Morrow's performance as maze is as realistic as one can get without suffering from the disease. It's quite a change from the roles he is most know for from "Northern Exposure" and "Numb3rs", and probably the best of his career. But it's a shame that the rest of the movie didn't raise to the same level.
Linney is her usual adorable, vulnerable self, but there's something missing from her performance. The movie has some odd pacing issues. It feels like it should be a lot longer than its 90+ minute running time, which was most obvious by the ending that few rushed because it was missing a few scenes.
With Morrow in the director's chair as well, it's obvious that his performance would be the standout one. This mostly comes from maybe a lack of explaining his vision to the other actors, and not needing to explain it to himself, which is understandable since this was his first time directing a feature. He does a pretty solid job overall, but I wonder what a veteran director could have done.
"Maze" is a unique tale with an interesting protagonist, but only shows flashes of charm that most independent romance movies should. Not a bad film by any stretch, but not one that you need to purchase; a rent should do.
Rating: 6/10 -- Good first effort in the directing chair by Morrow. Interesting protagonist, but an uninteresting story with a rushed ending.
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