There's only so long you can watch this guy mope around without wanting to scream, 'Dude, what's your problem?'
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
Yes, it all sounds quirky like most 'back-home' movies do, yet all of it rings true.
Lonesome Jim -- despite its excellent cast, controlled direction and moody, well-judged atmospherics -- tends to alienate us, just as Affleck's Jim does.
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.
The stellar supporting cast helps compensate, and Phil Parmet's muddy photography is a constant visual reminder of the everyday desolation that helped drag Jim into his black hole of despair.
If viewers can just get in synch with the movie's low energy and decidedly minor key, there are many pleasures to be had here, not the least of which is Affleck's affecting, unadorned performance.
If Lonesome Jim feels like it's perpetually on the verge of evaporating, Buscemi brings to the material the boundless empathy for misfits and screw-ups he displayed in Trees Lounge.
Indie moviegoers have met slackers like Jim before, but he's still good company. The laughs are frequent while the emotions ring true.
One of those indie excursions to Loserville that lasts an hour and a half but feels longer than Roots.
Steve Buscemi paints an honest picture of working class suburbia, where living rooms are covered with shag carpets and Applebees is the best restaurant in town.
Focuses in on a mother-son connection, rarely explored in films, after a depressed young man returns home to Indiana to start his life over again.
Though Affleck does his best to humanize his one-note character, he's stuck in a script by first-time screenwriter James Strouse that works in broad strokes and trite moments.
The 27-year-old protagonist of Steve Buscemi's deadpan comedy Lonesome Jim lives out the worst nightmare of every bushy-tailed go-getter who moves to New York to Be Somebody (in his case, a writer) and fails miserably.
There's nothing for Jim to do but sulk in a local bar on the corner of Nowheresville and Stuckforlife.
Now that digital imagery (Buscemi's film is another InDigEnt production) is virtually indistinguishable from handheld celluloid, where's the 21st century's own nasty, truth-seeking front edge?
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