Review of Lonesome Jim (2005) by Tyrone H — 30 Mar 2011

I mainly watched this because it was directed by Steve Buscemi, who i've always admired. I'm not such a fan of Casey Affleck and frankly have been a bit put off by the fawning praise heaped upon him for his recent work. So, he is a better actor than his brother. So what? Ben is still more watchable in my opinion. I do like Live Tyler and she is very good here, the hoplessly helpful and optimistic person who seems drawn to depressed, casey Affleck. She was braver than me, I just wanted to smother him with a pillow, but then you have to give him the credit for bringing out that feeling, because, I think that is how you are supposed to feel about him.

It is not dreadfully original, being a similar 'finding yourself' story along the lines of Garden State. But there are many things to like. It is pure indie, in style and intent. purposefully not highly polished, like the slightly amatuerish soundtrack which is a perfect accompanyment for what is on the screen. I found some scenes to be quite clumsiliy set up and shot and it's overall tone is unlikley to cheer you up after a hard day at work. It is however nicely done, well paced and has enough of a silver lining to stop you from driving your car into a tree, because the main character does go on a journey and at least everybody it seems is somehow better off at the end than they were at the beginning.