DIFF: Duane Hopwood (USA)

Set in the cold, windswept world of an Atlantic City November, recently divorced Duane Hopwood (David Schwimmer) works the graveyard shift at Caesar's. A security camera catches Duane appeasing a gambler with some cash, and his pit boss Carl (Jerry Grayson) has to fire him. His cherished relationship with his young daughters, Mary (Ramya Pratt) and Kate (Rachel Covey), is the only light in Duane's lonely, intoxicated life. Ex-wife Linda (Janeane Garofalo) still loves him, but can't trust him to be responsible. When he is caught driving drunk with his daughter in the backseat, his visitation rights are threatened, and Duane decides that the time has come to get his life together. Duane Hopwood is a touching story of a man trying to come back from the edge and accept life with all its imperfections. The casting of Schwimmer could not have been more perfect. He seems so harmless that the events befalling Duane might be attributed to bad luck. Along his journey for a fresh new start in life, he makes a few unlikely friends among the eccentrics who work in his casino, with scene-stealing Judah Friedlander providing a brilliant comical turn as Anthony, a casino guard. Also featured are Dick Cavett as Duane's elderly gay neighbor. Director Matt Mulhern takes a moving and humorous look at the limits of unconditional love, family and responsibility for one's own happiness.