Its mopey pace and the forced 'quirkiness' of its characters will have you reaching for the Ambien in no time.
Lonesome Jim (2006)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:87
Fresh:51
Rotten:36
Average Rating:6/10
Consensus: Though Lonesome Jim is leavened by sweet, understated humor, it's hard to root for such a morose, self-defeating protagonist.
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... 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
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.
Place [has] played overly chirpy, middle-class mothers/wives before, but the mom here is slowly revealed, through the subtlest changes of expression, to be much more than a caricature.
"Lonesome Jim" is worth checking out, if nothing else for the performances and Buscemi's idiosyncratic sense of irony.
A slight, but amusing and occasionally touching, dark comedy about depression and dysfunction that percolates with indie film hipness.
Jim's characters may grow on you after a slow setup and, like a hot plate of grits, may stick with you.
In the end, Lonesome Jim is an enormously hopeful and, I think, realistic film.
Has great relevance to the lost adultolescent generation of today ... but it also flounders in its commonplace and too-familiar concept.
Screenwriter James C. Strouse (in whose hometown the film was shot) provides so few clues to the source of Jim’s malaise, or that of his entire sad-sack family, that the movie remains rudderless and not the least bit believable.
"Lonesome Jim" is an earnest and modest 'little independent' movie that charms by way of its understated underachieving characters.
It is packed with delightfully silly vignettes that had me squirming in my seat with laughter.
Feels like a first film, but "Jim" is Buscemi's third feature and because it marks a technical decline from his earlier efforts, I can't help but greet it with disappointment.
Casey Affleck is Jim, maybe the least starring role ever to center a movie. In this wet doughnut, he is the wide hole.
If you were to saddle Garden State with a far less likeable lead and set it in Indiana, you might end up with this small gem
There's a slightness to the mildly eccentric material here that leaves the whole enterprise in danger of fluttering away.
A simple, no frills story-line told with total deadpan humor that fits in perfectly with the downward spiral of Jim's life.
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