Minimalist, moody and morose, Lonesome Jim is a minor gem.
Lonesome Jim (2006)
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Reviews Counted: 85
Fresh: 50
Rotten:35
Average Rating: 6.1/10
Consensus: Though Lonesome Jim is leavened by sweet, understated humor, it's hard to root for such a morose, self-defeating protagonist.
Theatrical Release: 11-04-2008
Synopsis: With LONESOME JIM, director Steve Buscemi delivers another low-budget gem about small-town American life. Boasting a fresh script courtesy of James C. Strouse, the film begins when 27-year-old Jim (Casey Affleck) returns to his small... With LONESOME JIM, director Steve Buscemi delivers another low-budget gem about small-town American life. Boasting a fresh script courtesy of James C. Strouse, the film begins when 27-year-old Jim (Casey Affleck) returns to his small Indiana town after having failed to make a dent as a writer in New York City. Depressed beyond comprehension, Jim must contend with his actively suicidal brother (Kevin Corrigan), insane mother (Mary Kay Place), and dangerously clueless uncle (Mark Boone Junior). Along the way, he meets a too-good-to-be-true nurse, Anika (Liv Tyler), and begins coaching his niece's hapless basketball squad. As time passes, the fog threatens to hang around forever, making Jim wonder if returning home might have been the worst mistake of all. Hilarious in its honesty, tender in its performances, and compassionate in its direction, LONESOME JIM is an example of superior independent filmmaking. Casey Affleck and Liv Tyler deliver especially wonderful performances, giving three-dimensional depth to characters that could potentially have come off as one-note clichés. One can only hope that audiences will see through the low-budget production values and embrace the film's universal themes. [More]
Starring: Casey Affleck, Liv Tyler, Mary Kay Place, Seymour Cassel
Starring: Casey Affleck, Liv Tyler, Mary Kay Place, Seymour Cassel, Kevin Corrigan, Mark Boone
Director: Steve Buscemi
Director: Steve Buscemi
Screenwriter: James C. Strouse
Producer: Celine Rattray, Jake Abraham
Studio: IFC Films
Reviews for Lonesome Jim
Steve Buscemi's third film as a director is a low key affair delivered with a wry sense of humour.
It's poignant, quietly life-affirming little story that doesn't need to shout. Lonesome Jim's good company.
Though this clash of picket-fenced, down-home values and big city oafishness was handled with a little more delicacy in 2005’s superb ‘Junebug’, Buscemi’s film has lots to say about this fruitful dynamic.
It's such a joy to watch that we often forget it's basically about people who have lost the will to live
Has great relevance to the lost adultolescent generation of today ... but it also flounders in its commonplace and too-familiar concept.
A depressing illustration of how even Middle America has ended up marginalized and rudderless in the wake of outsourcing, downsizing and globalization.
As the credits started to roll, I came to a pleasant and all-too-rare moviegoing realization: The smile that had crept across my face during the very first scene had never left.
Its title character is such a lifeless loser, you wish Moonstruck's Cher was around to slap him hard and yell, 'Snap out of it!'
"Lonesome Jim" is worth checking out, if nothing else for the performances and Buscemi's idiosyncratic sense of irony.
Too many movies offer cardboard cutouts of even their primaries, but Jim delivers honest, three-dimensional portraits of each of the major players.
Helped by the precise details of small-town life and laughs generated by circumstances almost everyone can relate to, Lonesome Jim is gratifying because of its nearly cheerful depiction of sorrow, not in spite of it.
Fancies itself a black comedy, but there's only one joke, and it's that dark-cloud-over- Jim's-head thing -- and it wears thin fast.
... the story of Percyesque ex-suicide, a parable about how embracing childish things can be part of growing up.
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