Jake Squared
Starring: Elias Koteas, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Virginia Madsen
Director: Howard Goldberg
Rating: 3/5
Howard Goldberg returns to the director's chair as he teams up with Elias Koteas for Jake Squared.
Jake Klein, 50, sets out to make a movie. He hires an actor to play himself and throws a big party. His idea is to shoot the heck out of it and see what he gets.
But, everything spins out of control as different, unexpected people show up. Old loves are there. New loves are there. His dead father, his mother when she was young, his kids, his ex-wife. Even his younger selves, Jake at 40, Jake at 30 and Jake at 17, are there, too!
And every one of them has tons of advice on how to fix his screwed up life. Jake’s head reels as he staggers through what’s either a mystical experience, a nervous breakdown... or both!
Jake Squared is one of the movies that is in the running for Best International Feature at the Raindance Festival, and it is not hard to see why people are being charmed by this film.
Jake Klein is an Everyman; a man who is looking for love and has perhaps not achieved all the dreams and aspirations he had as a young man.
Once you have got your head around the strangeness of the movie - and believe me, it is a bit odd - then you really do get an interesting and, at times, moving film.
Jake Squared is a movie about looking at why relationships have gone wrong, looking at the flaws in yourself and doing a bit of soul-searching; which is something that we can all identify with.
At times, the movie does feel a little chaotic as all of these different characters and versions of Jake keep appearing - you do wonder whether Goldberg is spinning a few too many plates.
However, in the middle of all the chaos is a genuinely likeable character and an excellent central performance from Elias Koteas.
The scenes with his mother are the ones that are particularly powerful and moving and really show off the best of this rather understated actor.
There is no doubt that Jake Squared is a great concept - you certainly won't see another movie like this all year - but Goldberg does, at times, lose his way with the rather complicated plot.
But it is Koteas who is the driving force in this film as he delivers several different performances as he plays different versions of the same character with a ranger of different emotions.
Jake Squared premieres at the Raindance Film Festival - screening 27th and 28th September.