MOVIE REVIEW . Lonesome Jim

by Kris   ⋅   September 20, 2006   ⋅   Comment now   ⋅    RSS

I’ve always held a soft spot in my heart for Casey Affleck, ever since he called Jason Lee a “tracer” in Chasing Amy. As if lines couldn’t get any better, there he was in Good Will Hunting slurring “want a double burrrrger” and “gimme my fuckin’ sammich”. Let us not forget his very first filmic role in the awesome Gus van Sant production To Die For, where he time tunneled into a modern-day greaser/horny teenager pining for Nicole Kidman’s affection. Casey, in case you haven’t already guessed, is the sibling you didn’t think Ben Affleck had. Why, the two barely share any resemblance at all, save the dimply chin-asses. Wait, what? They don’t even have that in common? And while Ben belts out the superhero thang in his helmet hair, Casey sulks with a voice like a sleepy stoner with a shock of curly locks. But because he’s the opposite of Brother Ben, he fits right into the unconventional and unique roles he lands. And I’m glad he landed the lead in Lonesome Jim.

Lonesome Jim is about a down-on-his-luck bloke whose middle name is Apathy. He feels no need to disguise his tarnished trail of failed dreams. He returns home with his tail between his legs to, in his own words, “have a nervous breakdown”. Home is podunk rural Indiana, a town so tiny and unimportant that I don’t think they even mentioned its name. It’s a far cry from New York City, where Jim tried to make it as a writer. Any good writer utilizes the sum of his/her experiences as a cushy springboard for creation; positive or negative experiences, it shouldn’t matter. Jim expresses his life in layers, trying to impress a pretty nurse Anika (Liv Tyler) at the local bar by casually preening about his old apartment in Manhattan. Anika is terribly bored with him until he admits the most embarrassing tidbit of his New York experience: he was a waiter at Applebee’s. “I LOVE Applebee’s!”, she exclaims, and the two instantly fall in (and then out) of lust. It’s little moments like these that really make Lonesome Jim shine. In real life, even when the bitter moments may outweigh the bright ones, all ultimately rests on how others perceive us, and how important it is to have a healthy and maybe unexpected push now and again.

Okay, okay, I was worried that you would think this was just another corny love story with a depressing beginning and a happy ending. Now why would I like a movie like that? There’s also the the whole dysfunctional family dynamic (mandatory in indie-type films) that goes farther than expected. The June Cleaver mom (Mary Kay Place), imparted with such divine clingy creepiness mixed with absolution of wanton liberation for her two sons, smiles her squeaky clean smile because it’s all she knows how to do. Ah, so then it’s plausible that she would raise someone like Jim, who goes through life just waiting for it all to end, just waiting for the plastic and sugar coating to peel off. And it’s plausible that she would raise someone like Jim’s elder brother Tim (Kevin Corrigan), who actually almost has to be reminded of what a loser he is; he’s so caught up in the routine of it all. When Jim confronts his bro, Tim immediately reacts in his own signature way, even flunking suicide by crashing his car into a tree, ending in a coma. His hospitalization reunites Jim and Anika, and reinforces the entire “comatose” aspect of Tim’s life.

Jim agrees to stay in town to take care of his brother’s obligations, one of which is coaching and mentoring a flailing basketball team. Well, he doesn’t exactly mentor the kids, which is another cool aspect of this movie. It’s not uplifting in the sense that everyone’s life will be mended in the end. It is uplifting in the sense that hey, this happens to everybody and they just deal with it. Failure, then, is the virtue here.

That sounds bleak, but Lonesome Jim is a truly funny movie. It relishes in the ordinary, but also dives into some rash surprises, like when Jim’s mother goes to jail for a crime she didn’t commit, Tim puts the moves on Anika in his “sexy” neckbrace, Jim realizes Anika doesn’t exactly live alone, and Jim is blackmailed by his fat uncle. Since it’s directed by Steve Buscemi, be prepared for performances from a dozen Buscemis. It’s almost as if he tuned everyone’s reaction and timing to his own quirky fidgety spit-speak and crooked nervousness, plus he even gave Casey his flat, unkempt hairdo! Somehow, it works and actually congeals the ensemble as if they were all facets of the same person, subconsciously lecturing Jim’s personal psyche cache, his bucket of experiences if you will. This definitely keeps it from being preachy or unrealistic, since we are all attracted to and repulsed by the shared elements we view in others. This also helps the audience to see that Anika and Jim really aren’t all that different. Sure, on the outside they are polar opposites with Anika as the optimist extraordinaire. But what I really got out of it was that when Jim openly questions her personality, he is really questioning his own suppression. Noone forces him to see the world as he does, and noone forces him to see it differently either. But maybe it’s just hard for me to believe that someone as cute as Casey Affleck could be so clinically depressed.

About the Author

Kris Kobayashi-Nelson says these directors/screenwriters rarely disappoint: Peter Greenaway, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Krzysztof Kieslowski, Gus van Sant. Gregg Araki. Kris claims that Jake Gyllenhaal, Cillian Murphy, Desmond Harrington and Casey Affleck are much more than pretty faces.