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.
Comment
05/19/06
Lonesome Jim (2006)
59
%
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... [More]
Starring: Casey Affleck, Liv Tyler, Mary Kay Place, Seymour Cassel
Director: Steve Buscemi
Reviews for Lonesome Jim
It all feels very slight.
05/19/06
... the story of Percyesque ex-suicide, a parable about how embracing childish things can be part of growing up.
05/19/06
Affleck plays this as a one-note turn, all dour. What a life-force like Anika would see in him is a mystery.
05/12/06
Affleck makes a perfectly downcast lightning rod for the ennui-ridden goings-on, and as a director, Buscemi totally gets the defeatist beats of James C. Strouse’s script.
05/10/06
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05/06/06
An interesting but unsuccessful study, although viewers should be cautioned about falling victim to its malaise.
05/06/06
The problem is that a little of this minimalist kitchen-sink farce goes a very long way, and after a while Lonesome Jim starts to dry up.
05/05/06
As in 'Elizabethtown' and 'Jersey Girl,' the hero doesn't have to do anything but exist to attract the devoted attentions of a beautiful woman, a sexist fantasy of entitlement as insidious (if unacknowledged) as that found in an old Rat Pack movie.
05/03/06
It keeps us rooting for him even as we can't stop shaking our heads and chuckling at what an absolute pill he is.
04/28/06
Ben Affleck's little brother does have a likable quality, and his character eventually warms up.
04/21/06
Buscemi makes the most of his thin material, wringing small moments of grace from the small-town mockery.
04/21/06
The charm is in the quirky writing (by James C. Strouse), offbeat acting and interesting direction by Steve Buscemi.
04/20/06
A slight, but amusing and occasionally touching, dark comedy about depression and dysfunction that percolates with indie film hipness.
04/20/06
(Casey) Affleck is adequate as the lead, although I kept wondering how much lower Buscemi could take Jim.
04/17/06
Casey Affleck is Jim, maybe the least starring role ever to center a movie. In this wet doughnut, he is the wide hole.
04/14/06
A lackluster film about a lackluster fellow, it's so beholden to deadpan, droopy, mopey blandness that the subject and the form become one, leaving the viewer numb and indifferent.
04/14/06
The biggest problem Buscemi has is that his central character has, by definition, very little distinct character.
04/14/06
While Lonesome Jim may be clinically acute, it is by its very nature dramatically inert.
04/14/06
It is packed with delightfully silly vignettes that had me squirming in my seat with laughter.
04/13/06
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