Maze (2000)

41% of critics liked it
(22 reviews)
44% of users liked it
(1,648 ratings)

An artist with Tourette's syndrome and an aversion to romance falls for his best friend's girl in this sometimes comic drama. Lyle Maze (Rob Morrow), a successful painter who's also starting to explore sculpture, relies on emotional armor a foot thick to protect him from other people. In addition to… More An artist with Tourette's syndrome and an aversion to romance falls for his best friend's girl in this sometimes comic drama. Lyle Maze (Rob Morrow), a successful painter who's also starting to explore sculpture, relies on emotional armor a foot thick to protect him from other people. In addition to suffering from uncontrollable physical tics and loud outbursts, Lyle is also prone to obsessive-compulsive disorder. Afraid that his artistic gifts and his disease spring from the same well, he eschews the well-meaning advice of his doctor pal, Mike (Craig Sheffer), and refuses to try the new drug therapies available. He also rejects any attempt to fix him up with women. But when rebel-without-a-cause Mike decides to tilt at windmills in Africa for seven months as a member of Doctors Without Borders, Lyle finds himself in a precarious position. Callie (Laura Linney), Mike's acerbic ad-exec girlfriend, has confided to him that she's pregnant but unwilling to use her condition as leverage to shore up her troubled relationship. Soon, Lyle is coaching Callie through natural childbirth classes, playing surrogate father-to-be, and falling in love. Inspired by the documentary Twitch and Shout, Maze marked the first trip behind the camera for actor Rob Morrow, who played another man with Tourette's in the film Other Voices. In addition to directing and starring in Maze, the Northern Exposure star co-wrote and co-produced. ~ Brian J. Dillard, Rovi

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Rating, Runtime: R, 1 hr. 37 min.
Directed By: Rob Morrow
Written By: Rob Morrow, Bradley White
Genres: Drama, Animation, Art House & International, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Comedy

In Theaters: Nov 9, 2001 Wide
On DVD: Sep 19, 2000
Studio: Regent Releasing

Critic Reviews

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer
In the end, you just feel good about these people, and that's a nice sensation these days.
Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper
[A] tangled, tortured mess.
Andrew Sarris, New York Observer
The best kind of independent filmmaking to shame the somnolent mainstream.
Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times
Morrow illuminates all the challenges facing the individual coping with Tourette syndrome while showing that Lyle is much more than the sum of his afflictions.
Carla Meyer, San Francisco Chronicle
An effective love triangle has to involve real conflict. This one doesn't.
Jan Stuart, Newsday
Gets points for sensitivity and intelligence, but misses the mark as a work of art.
Ted Murphy, Baseline.Hollywood.com
Maze is the kind of small movie that rarely gets shown in theaters anymore ...
Jeffrey M. Anderson, Combustible Celluloid
A movie that both Oprah and Hallmark would be proud to stamp with their seal of approval.
Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times
Shows promise as a first feature ... but overall it feels a little too safe, a little too careful.
David Elliott, San Diego Union-Tribune
What drains the movie is that Lyle is such a sweet, noble, suffering soul that he simply sponges our interest into banality.
Maitland McDonagh, TV Guide's Movie Guide
Linney's finely calibrated, low-key performance as Callie goes a long way towards making it more interesting than it might otherwise be.
William Arnold, Seattle Post-Intelligencer
There's a by-the-numbers inevitability to every scene, and it never clicks into place to be anything special.