Love Liza is a 2002 American tragicomedic[3] drama film directed by Todd Louiso and starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Kathy Bates, Jack Kehler, Wayne Duvall, Sarah Koskoff and Stephen Tobolowsky.

In his grief-stricken state and with the added stress of finding the letter, which he cannot bring himself to open and read, he forms an addiction to inhaling gasoline fumes ("huffing").

Wilson finds his house empty after a robbery, and believing to have lost his wife's letter has a meltdown and his addiction grows out of control; he loses a work opportunity when a client discovers him huffing glow fuel with neighborhood kids.

When Gordy Hoffman wrote the screenplay for Love Liza, he did not originally envision his brother Philip for the lead role.

Said Gordy, "In ’96, Phil and I just happened to both go home to Rochester for Labor Day weekend...I’d just finished Love Liza, and I gave it to him to read.

The critics' consensus states: "Hoffman's performance is strong, but the lack of character development and story arc makes Love Liza unsatisfying.

"[9] Rex Reed of The New York Observer praised Hoffman's performance, believing that it could have the same kind of impact on his career as Leaving Las Vegas had for Nicolas Cage.

[10] Todd McCarthy of Variety wrote "the situations in the film are fresh and inventive and just plain odd enough to keep interest reasonably high.

Pudgy, pasty and squinty-eyed, Hoffman would scarcely stand out in a crowd, and yet, as he almost always has in his numerous impressive character turns, the actor here displays a live wire personality that makes him a magnetic figure even when portraying a state of thorough-going misery.