MOVIE REVIEW
Lymelife (2009)
Screen Media Films
If there’s one type of movie that immediately comes to mind when one thinks of Sundance, where “Lymelife” played after premiering at Toronto, it’s a quirky dysfunctional family drama set in the suburbs. It’s a testament to the quality of the craft of “Lymelife” that it works well despite rigidly adhering to the template.
Director Derick Martini sets things in 1970s Long Island, when there were still a lot of land left for suburban developers, and tells the story of the crumbling marriage of Mickey (Alec Baldwin) and Brenda (Jill Hennessy) through the eyes of their son Scott (Rory Culkin). It’s heartfelt and sad without ever seeming forced, and the relationships play out with an authenticity that often goes missing from period domestic dramas.
The director, who co-wrote with his brother Steve, fills the film with moments of quiet desperation and gets a compelling, introspective performance from Mr. Culkin that might just be the best onscreen work ever done by a Culkin. Bathed in the restrained browns and grays that characterized the decade’s less flamboyant cultural centers, the visual scheme helps focus the exploration of the interplay between civilization and wilderness and the ways that’s reflected in the lives of these characters.
The entrance of Timothy Hutton’s Charlie Bragg, cuckolded husband to Melissa (Cynthia Nixon) and father to Adrianna (Emma Roberts), threatens to upset the carefully calibrated realist sensibility. He’s rapidly going insane, becoming obsessed by deer and the threat of Lyme disease, which allegorically conveys the cancer rotting at the suburban surface. But Mr. Martini incorporates the character properly, taking great care to find a convincing human grounding for him. In so doing, the filmmaker completes his evocation of the realistic emotional ramifications of the stories being told and skillfully connects them to the frailty of the American Dream.
LYMELIFE
Opens on April 8 in Manhattan and on July 2, 2010 in Britain.
Directed by Derick Martini; written by Derick Martini and Steven Martini; director of photography, Frank Godwin; edited by Steven Martini, Derick Martini and Mark Yoshikawa; music by Steven Martini; production designer, Kelly McGehee; produced by Steven Martini, Barbara DeFina, Jon Cornick, Alec Baldwin, Michele Tayler and Angela Somerville; released by Screen Media Films (United States) and Network Releasing (Britain). Running time: 1 hour 35 minutes. This film is rated R by M.P.A.A. and 15 by B.B.F.C.
WITH: Alec Baldwin (Mickey Bartlett), Kieran Culkin (Jimmy Bartlett), Rory Culkin (Scott Bartlett), Jill Hennessy (Brenda Bartlett), Timothy Hutton (Charlie Bragg), Cynthia Nixon (Melissa Bragg) and Emma Roberts (Adrianna Bragg).
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