I Love Your Work (2004)

22% of critics liked it
(32 reviews)
43% of users liked it
(5,033 ratings)

A hot young celebrity discovers fame can be a toxic substance in this independent drama. Gray Evans (Giovanni Ribisi) is a successful actor in his late twenties who would seem to have it made. Gray is married to an attractive actress with a solid career of her own, Mia Lang (Franka Potente), he's… More A hot young celebrity discovers fame can be a toxic substance in this independent drama. Gray Evans (Giovanni Ribisi) is a successful actor in his late twenties who would seem to have it made. Gray is married to an attractive actress with a solid career of her own, Mia Lang (Franka Potente), he's got several projects in the works, he gets lots of fan mail, and he gets to hang out at ritzy parties with his heroes. But Gray is far from happy; his marriage to Mia is starting to fall apart, and he's being driven to distraction by his obsessive belief that a fan is stalking him. As Gray struggles to separate his delusions from reality, he finds himself indulging in a bit of stalking of his own, as he begins following John (Joshua Jackson), a clerk at a video store who is a big fan of his movies. The way Gray sees it, John is happier than he is, John's pretty wife, Jane (Marisa Coughlan), loves him while Mia doesn't care for him any more, and all in all he'd just as soon trade lives with the guy. In the midst of all this, Gray has recently run into Shana (Christina Ricci), a former flame he'd like to reconnect with. Directed by actor Adam Goldberg, I Love Your Work features a number of major stars in cameo roles, including Vince Vaughn, Jason Lee, and Elvis Costello. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Play Trailer

Rating, Runtime: R, 1 hr. 50 min.
Directed By: Adam Goldberg
Genres: Art House & International, Drama

In Theaters: Nov 4, 2005 Wide
On DVD: Mar 28, 2006
Studio: ThinkFilm

Critic Reviews

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger
What is so dreadful about unearned fame and undeserved riches that warrants this faux-Antonioni despair?
Kyle Smith, New York Post
At last, Adam Goldberg has given us his 8 1/2. It's an ambitious rumination on fame, reality, love, loss and regret that falls so far short, he should have called it 2 1/8.
Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News
Working with a self-consciously urgent, neo-noir style, Goldberg seems intent on expressing a meaningful message of some kind. It's too bad, then, that he has chosen such a shallow subject.
Manohla Dargis, New York Times
Directed by the young actor Adam Goldberg, "I Love Your Work is an attempt to say something interesting about modern celebrity.
Jan Stuart, Newsday
I Love Your Work gets the dissonance of the celebrity lifestyle to a T. But the self-reflexive strategy of Goldberg and co-writer Adrian Butchart is too brainy by half.
Michael Atkinson, Village Voice
I Love Your Work promises with its very title to be self-conscious, self-deprecating, self-glorifying, and self-mockingly witty.
Robert Davis, Paste Magazine
It's an intriguing mish-mash, a meta-textual stew that Goldberg, unfortunately, paints with a big, thick brush and then underlines with fat charcoal pencils.
Christopher Campbell, Cinematical
So many questions are raised from both sides of the celebrity fence that the film could only have been made by someone as on-the-edge of stardom as [Goldberg].
David Cornelius, eFilmCritic.com
It's too busy trying to be clever that it forgets to give us anything that's actually interesting.
Jules Brenner, Cinema Signals
a pointless stew
Nick Schager, Slant Magazine
When Ricci's dreamgirl, finally fed up with Gray's insanity, chastises him with "You're obvious," it's a sentiment also applicable to the film itself.
Ron Wilkinson, Monsters and Critics
An edgeless one man show by Ribisi that acts like being insane.
Brent Simon, Now Playing Magazine
A jumbled parabola of self-deceptions, head trips and feints -- colorful and stimulating but not completely satisfying.
Ross Anthony, Hollywood Report Card
A crisp impressionistic look at stardom while pointing out the allure of being common. Very strong in direction, script and acting, but struggles to finish.

Read all 14 critic reviews

Critic ratings and reviews powered by RottenTomatoes.com

Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)

Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)

Featured Audience Ratings

Bannan i

I personally believe this movie is way underrated, I suppose to like a movie of this calibre one needs to have an acquired taste to it. It flies beneath the radar because it tackles I suppose what you could call the 'truth' of the movie business and even the human psyche as… More
I personally believe this movie is way underrated, I suppose to like a movie of this calibre one needs to have an acquired taste to it. It flies beneath the radar because it tackles I suppose what you could call the 'truth' of the movie business and even the human psyche as a whole. The first time I saw simply the end of it, and it awed me...that I recommended it to Dij but hadn't seen the film in its entirety to earlier today. In this movie we learn of an actor, Gray Evans [Ribsi], who is married to actress, Mia Lang [Potente] and their marriage is suffering terribly. On top of this he finds that he is slowly losing his grips upon reality and the entire story becomes his entire paranoid obsession with a young film student, John Eckhart [Jackson]. This young character seems to remind him of himself before he caught the famous bug and became a completely different person. Various things occur where he tries to mend his relationship with Mia, or when he tries to portray their relationship to the public as completely normal whilst the tabloids proclaim them being 'stormy and tempestuous'. There are some parts in this film that get extremely confusing as it shows how easily his dreams become lucid and although he thinks they are real they just devour him completely. The finale, which I'm not going to share is quite something indeed. An ironic metaphor in itself. What drew me to this film was the dark premise of the story, Franka Potente [who is one of my favourite actresses] and Ribsi, of course. This movie simply shows that Ribsi is quite believable in playing yet another role where one is masquerading as 'normal' person whilst facing turmoils within themselves. Not for everyone, and I've noticed many actually aren't interested at all in this. I find this story quite deep and utterly terrifying.
E.J. B

Very much like an acid trip. Not anything worth remembering.
Walter M

[font=Century Gothic]In "I Love Your Work", Gray(Giovanni Ribisi) apparently has it all. He is a famous movie star, married to a beautiful actress, Mia(Franka Potente), and is also an amateur photographer. But that veneer is starting to crack. His marriage is coming apart… More
[font=Century Gothic]In "I Love Your Work", Gray(Giovanni Ribisi) apparently has it all. He is a famous movie star, married to a beautiful actress, Mia(Franka Potente), and is also an amateur photographer. But that veneer is starting to crack. His marriage is coming apart at the seams, Elvis Costello is leaving messages and Gray fears he is being stalked. One day, he wanders into the safe haven of a video store where he meets store employee John(Joshua Jackson), a fan, and his girlfriend, Jane(Marisa Coughlan), an artist.[/font] [font=Century Gothic][/font] [font=Century Gothic]"I Love Your Work" is an intriguing movie about the price of fame and being careful what you ask for. But it also serves as a commentary on the symbiotic relationship between the audience and the performers and what each hopes to gain in the bargain.[/font]
Chosen 7

Good film, kind've weird and a little disturbing though. Great performance by Giovanni Ribisi.
Quinto W

This film had absolutely everything in it for me to love - hell, adore it!, but in the end I just couldn't find anything that interesting in it's characters other than the actors playing them.
Kevin M

Wasn't sure what to make of this dramatic riches-based story, although I did like seeing some sharp acting in some moments. Ribisi is odd in more than a few scenes, but seems entertaining overall. I wasn't expecting Nicky Katt to spontaneously burst into song, but I guess… More
Wasn't sure what to make of this dramatic riches-based story, although I did like seeing some sharp acting in some moments. Ribisi is odd in more than a few scenes, but seems entertaining overall. I wasn't expecting Nicky Katt to spontaneously burst into song, but I guess director Goldberg had a vision. I passed up the chance to see 'The Green Mile' while watching this film. I should've watched the Stephen King feature instead.
Jay R

Giovanni Ribisi does a great job in this film... cracked out and crazed... good stuff, with a strange variety of big name actors/actress'... weird movie... but interesting...