MAZE

In the recent “Other Voices” (24th CIFF, 2000), Rob Morrow portrayed a man afflicted with Tourette's Syndrome. Now, in his ausipicious directorial feature debut, the same actor puts an affectingly humorous face to two infamous, enigmatic sicknesses, Tourette's – and love. New York painter-sculptor Lyle Maze grapples daily with Tourette's Syndrome and obsessive-compulsive disorders. His brain's misfiring synapses cause him to emit strange noises and convulse his muscles into sudden twitches and jerks, especially during moments of stress. It is especially significant that he can't even finish a portrait sitting with a nude model without involuntarily splattering the girl with paint; his romantic life has long flatlined because of the seizures. The only female with whom Lyle enjoys easy rapport is photographer Callie, wife of Mike, his best friend and physician. But as Mike departs for an extended charity mission to Africa, Callie confides in Lyle that their marriage is ailing, and that she's secretly pregnant. As Lyle Maze assists Callie thorugh some difficult personal decisions, he can't help falling for the one woman who calms the biochemical storm raging in his head.