Review of Lymelife (2008) by Shawn B — 06 Feb 2011

Hmmmm ... I want to say "wow" twice. Once for the acting in a very positive way, and then once again for the story in a very negative way. It seemed like the entire movie I was torn between either liking it or disliking it.

Something would happen in the story and it would completely turn me off, then a second later, an actor or actress would do something amazing and it would turn me on again! I hate feeling that way during a movie.

I honestly can't say that I enjoyed myself that much. I feel that life is bad enough in real life, do we need movies to throw another bad, depressing story down our throats to make us feel worse? I don't think so, we should be able to use movies to escape from the bad things in life, even if it is only for 90 minutes or so at a time.

That being said, I can't say enough good things about the cast! Alec Baldwin and Timothy Hutton were near perfect playing middle aged fathers both dealing with their own personal demons. Hutton plays Charlie Bragg, a man who was bitten by a deer tick while hunting and has contracted the very serious Lyme Disease.

He now has no motivation to do anything in life and has lost his job and his love for his wife. Alec plays Mickey Bartlett, a hard working father and husband building a new low-income housing addition.

Soon he starts spending more time at work and with other people than his own family who grow to dislike him for that. Jill Hennessey plays Brenda Bartlett, opposite Cynthia Nixon, playing Melissa Bragg.

Rory Culkin and Kieran Culkin play Scott and Jimmy Bartlett and the lovely Emma Roberts plays Adrianna Bragg. This ensemble was very convincing. I honestly felt every emotion they were portraying and every emotion they were feeling.

All seven leads caught my attention and I am now a fan of all, especially Emma and those Culkin boys. All three are definitely on the rise and I hope to see them in much, much more in the future. I do have to hand it to Derick Martini and his brother Steven Martini, as together they wrote, directed, edited, produced and scored the film.

It does take real talent to be able to do all of those jobs all by themselves. And I will definitely give this duo another try in the future, in hopefully something a little more cheerful : ).