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Film: Lonesome Jim [R] 91 minutes
WIP™ Scale: $8.00
Where Viewed: AMC Loews Uptown, Seattle, WA
When 1st Seen: 19 April 2006
Time: 3:35 p.m.
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DVD |
Hopefully, you haven’t been too worried that Steve Buscemi and Casey Affleck were out of work. I actually have to admit that I haven’t thought much about these two since Fargo in Mr. Buscemi’s case and Good Will Hunting in Mr. Affleck’s case. Well, now we all know what they were doing. They were working on directing and starring in a little independent film that was surely one of the most odd films I’ve seen in a very, very long time. Casey Affleck plays a man who suffers from chronic despair named Jim. Broke and hopeless, he returns to his hometown in Indiana to his boyhood home and the discomfort of his parent’s care. Founders of a ladder-making company, Jim’s parents, Don (Seymour Cassel) and Sally (Mary Kay Place), welcome their son back into the house—how could they not since his older brother, Tim (Kevin Corrigan), still lives at home so he can pay his child support each month for his two daughters. To describe this family as dysfunctional would be to give them an excuse for their problems. Unfortunately, the source of their issues runs deep and the fountain of Jim’s despair is never really revealed other than that he eventually realizes that he has lived his life always striving to prevent himself from ever being disappointed with his lack of success leading him to a life of little satisfaction—hence chronic despair. At some point in the film, I just wanted to push pause and go shake him or sign him up for a good therapy session. For all I know, he could have been clinically depressed due to some weird chemical imbalance. Shortly after arriving in town, Jim meets a lovely nurse named Anika (Liv Tyler). The two hit it off well, but deep down, Jim cannot warm up to her until he warms up to himself, and he can find nothing about himself worthy of being warmed up to—hence even more despair. There were quite a number of funny spots, but as the film wore on, and it does wear on because the woe-is-me of Jim and his family members eventually becomes a bit tiring to watch, I couldn’t help but begin to wonder if this was all a sham. I began to wonder when Jim waxes on about how he is a closet writer and later shows off his writers wall of fame to Anicka following each introduction with an explanation of how each died or killed him/herself. And this and other parts of Jim were so pretentious as to really have me questioning if this film was really as smart as some claim it to be; or if, rather, it just talked a good game. Well, that will be the main point to debate about Lonesome Jim for as long as this little film remains in theatres and even after once it comes to video. This is definitely not a good film to see if you are in despair or lonely. Every now and again, you can judge a film by its title. Now, it does have a happy ending—that’s all I’ll say—and, as I said, it is funny. Sometimes, though it is funny because Mr. Affleck is so deadpan in his delivery of certain lines as to make humor where their otherwise might not be. Other times it is funny because you have to wonder how much tragedy can one family actually endure. On the whole, I would say this film is probably not a sleeper film that is going to take fire. On a final note, I thought Mary Kay Place was excellent!
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Lonesome Jim [DVD](2005) DVD
Available for Purchase or Pre-Order on DVD
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Lonesome Jim [DVD](2005) DVD
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