Lymelife (2008)

I am still shocked that some reviewer wrote "laugh out loud funny" after seeing this film. Granted, there are moments where you might smile. But more than anything, this film is sad; depicting the genuine heartache that is wrought when a family falls apart.

Baldwin and Nixon both excellent actors are good, but not brilliant. I expected better. The acting performance of Emma Roberts is terrible that her aunt is Julia Roberts no doubt explains her being granted this role. Timothy Hutton, however, as the lyme-diseased, depressed husband who witnesses his wife's infidelity deserves the highest accolades. His performance in this film is flawless, portraying a man suffering from a disease that has rendered him incapable of functioning as the man he once was. I found his performance riveting and heartbreaking. Kieran Culkin is the next Sean Penn that is a given. His underscored performance as a love-struck, confused teen was excellent. And his brother Rory Culkin was also excellent. Hutton and the kids stole this film. I don't want to go over the plot but I do recommend this film. It is well-done, and well-acted....but it's not "laugh out loud funny" at all. Whenever children suffer, there is little to laugh at.

I admit that I picked this for viewing because of Alec Baldwin. The guy may have had his shares of troubles but he is quite a charismatic actor (well, in some movies more than others). Set in Long Island, N.Y., the time period is the mid-70s, and it also has two Culkin brothers in it. Rory Culkin portrays a 15-year-old, Scott Bartlett whose parents,real estate developer Mickey (Alec Baldwin in a wolfish and arrogant role) and passive mother, Brenda (Jill Hennessy) reflect the trappings of a successful life, but are not altogether happy in their marriage. Scott is however more concerned with the girl next door, attractive Adrianna (Emma Roberts of Nancy Drew) who sort of teases him, but has other romantic inclinations. Adrianna' mom, Melissa (Cynthia Nixon)works for Mickey, and portrays a long-suffering wife who has to deal with her Lyme-disease addled husband, Tommy (Timothy Hutton). Oh, and there's Scott's brother Jimmy (Kieran Culkin), who's on leave from the army.

The drama of the two families unfolds slowly, portraying the gradual unraveling of two marriages, whilst also delving into the sexual awakening of an adolescent boy who is tormented by his attraction to Adrianna, and also concerned about his parents' marriage. Rory Culkin does a credible job of playing the angsty teen, and grows on the viewer, eliciting one's empathy for the growing pains he goes through, without being overly melodramatic or sentimental. There's a good balance between the dark and light in this drama, and the ensemble cast does a great job in maintaining this balance, especially Alec Baldwin who plays true to type here.

The story is far from fresh or original,as there have been so many other movies made about dysfunctional families, and adolescence (one of my favorites is "The Squid and the Whale") yet it strikes a chord, and this is largely due to the heartfelt performance by Rory Culkin. Another well-made coming-of-age movie is The Education of Charlie Banks.

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3.4 stars

Ok, so it's a true story. The script is fair enough, direction too. The acting is uniformly decent, with Baldwin as usual stealing the show. The lead is likeable enough. So why didn't I enjoy this film?

Good question. Probably because it's just a little too realistic, meaning there's a lack of redemption, or whatever it is that makes art art and life not so art. I just found it all too bleak, in a very bland sort of way. Yes, the suburbs are full of deception and disappointment and dismay and d-everything. But that doesn't mean I want to watch them played out on screen...unless something really special and revealing occurs. And here, it doesn't.

Well done, but I'd recommend you watch American Beauty or Ordinary People or Kramer vs. Kramer or any of the many other superior suburban drams. Sadly, this one never gets there, despite good work all around.

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I expected a funny comedy, the DVD cover art says, 'Violently Funny,' 'Laugh Out Loud Funny, entertaining and moving,' 'Wonderful,' and 'Tender.' The film inside isn't exactly any of these things. It is a coming of age film set in 1979 with the backdrop of some incredibly dysfunctional adults. No, I'm sorry; I laughed a little at the beginning, but then was just left sad after the half way point passed.

The film starts off quirky and interesting. I love film that tries new things, sets up a different style, hides things from the viewer, and uses unusual music. All there in a wonderful mix during the first 30 minutes. At first I couldn't place the setting year (later in the film I discovered it is 1979, shown in a very pointed manner), so that was a bit unsettling. Two different families are shown and their relationship is unveiled slowly and wonderfully. There are a number of jokes that are genuinely funny. At about midpoint the film starts to devolve into lies, cheating, foul language, standard melodrama editing and filming, and the characters just become less and less believable and lose my connection with them (save the two lead characters, best friends Adrianna and Scott).

Sadly as this film lost my interest, I started to notice horribly sloppy editing and continuity. Normally these things just pass by, I enjoy a film, I'm engrossed in the story, and continuity, unless grossly bad, just slips past. Not here, the story line got so bogged down that I started noticing all these problems. I noticed way too many cuts where somebody would have their hand up to their mouth and an immediate reverse cut with their hand down; cigarettes that change length immediately; or facial expressions that change too quickly during a cut.

The cast. Rory Culkin (yes he has a famous brother) as Scott was good, as a more or less clueless teenager. Emma Roberts (Nancy Drew) as Adrianna was radiant, and did a wonderful job just snotty enough to her best friend Scott, and then just exactly nice enough. Alec Baldwin as Scott's father, was a pig, pretty much as he always plays he was a mix of Schwetty from SNL and his 30 Rock character. Jill Hennessy (Law and Order, and Crossing Jordan) as Scott's mother was decent. She was a little bit crazy, a little bit caring mother. Cynthia Nixon Adrianna's mother (Sex and the City) was sometimes amazing, sometimes just awful her New York accent slipped in and out a lot. Timothy Hutton as Adrianna's father was just so dirty looked like he never washed his hair the whole time. Bottom line, its more or less an all star cast. There wasn't a lot of chemistry between these characters, except Scott and Adrianna.

The film was too long by a good 30 minutes. The first 30 minutes were excellent. The last 15 were very well done. There was 45 minutes where the film kind of lost its way.

The film is rated R. There are sensuous moments with no nudity; a fair amount of strong language; and s small amount of violence. This film might be acceptable for slightly younger viewers. The themes are somewhat mature.

The DVD includes a fairly long list of bonus features. The alternate ending is just plain awful. I've never seen a DVD where the alternate is 19 minutes, where 18 minutes was exactly the same as the original film. There is 20 seconds that is new or different. The voice over with the director and a few others is just plain annoying. Clearly the director loved the script written version that is the alternate. Frankly, this is a huge waste of time, the released ending is exactly the right ending. There are a series of deleted scenes. Again, I had a hard time seeing what is different, other than extensions of what was included in the released film.

I was disappointed by this film. There are much better coming of age films. Adventureland, Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist, and Almost Famous come to mind. My expectations were maybe set too high, this is a coming of age film with a depressing back story.

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I can finally see why the critics and audiences on Rottentomatoes.com alike gave this film 58% and 50% respectively for Lymelife. Like American Beauty, Lymelife is about the difficulties and growing pains of growing up in the suburbs. The problems is, too much of this film seems to have been carbon copied from American Beauty.

There is nothing wrong with filmmakers getting inspiration from another previously successful movie, especially one that has won so many accolades and acclaim as American Beauty. But Lymelife was trying too hard to derive the hell of suburban lifestyle, the growing pains of teenage youth, and difficulties of a marriage falling apart--all of it was taken directly from American Beauty. Even the ending was derived from American Beauty! Couldn't Derick Martini come up with a better ending?

A few acting performances do stand out to keep this movie from getting too predictable and lame. Rory Culkin as Scott Barlett, a teenager who is going through the usual growing pains of being a teenager, put on a solid performance. Timothy Hutton was good as Charlie Bragg, a man who has lyme disease, and had the unfortunate luck of witnessing his wife have an adulterous affair with her boss. And Adam Scarimbolo played the role of Scott's bully very well. But it is not enough to save Lymelife.

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