Hawke has made this movie his way and the result is a story that is by turns romantic and disquieting. It's well worth the price of admission.

Could be an overwrought mess if it were in less capable hands. But Webber and Moreno are so good, it's hard to believe they're not really deeply and meaningfully in lust.

Hawke's script is admirably light-handed in showing how the hero's unreasoning passion is fueled by his parents' painful divorce, and despite the story's date-movie aspects, its most penetrating observations come not from the kids but from the young man's estranged father and mother (Hawke and Laura Linney, both superb).

It's nothing new, but Hawke captures some evocative textures and honest moments.

At times this indie is as repetitive and self-indulgent as its protagonist, but it captures a bit of the madness of being unrequitedly in love.

Hawke quite capably taps into the bittersweet complexities of young, love-struck idiocy.

Patchy lead perfs and mannered helming subtract value from pic's tangible plus points (solid supporting turns, pleasant score).

At around the halfway point, its characters' haranguing voices begin to grate on you. People in their early 20s, even pretty people, lose their appeal when they dwell this obsessively on their own inchoate turmoil.

Actor-turned-filmmaker Ethan Hawke's second feature, an adaptation of his own novel about youthful heartbreak, is hobbled by its singularly unappealing lead characters.

Hawke, who is very good as the young man's estranged father, had best stick to what he does best.

In The Hottest State, Hawke uses fairly standard childhood motivations for his unhappiness and reveals too little real interest in the Sara character.

Personal and heartfelt, it's nevertheless bogged down by a lack of perspective on the material and a pointlessly frilly visual style.

A viewing of The Hottest State is likely to conclude with a crosstown sprint of a different kind: As soon as the credits start rolling, you can't wait to get out.

Hawke has created a standard-issue, Sundance-friendly indie film that's full of the predictable angst suffered by Manhattan artistic types, but unfortunately the lead characters are both so callow that you finally don't care much about them.