Lonesome Jim Review
by Steve Rhodes (Steve DOT Rhodes AT InternetReviews DOT com)March 30th, 2006
LONESOME JIM
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2006 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): *
LONESOME JIM, a slice of deadly dull life, was supposedly directed by Steve Buscemi, but this movie is so devoid of life that is hard to believe that any actual direction was involved. This s-l-o-w film concerns a miserable guy named Jim (Casey Affleck). He and his brother Tim (Kevin Corrigan) are so tired and depressed that their emotions are quite infectious. You'll feel pretty awful too hanging out with Jim, who tells everyone that he suffers from "chronic despair."
Jim meets a nurse named Anika (Liv Tyler) at a bar. Shortly thereafter she takes him to the hospital so she can have sex with him in a hospital bed. The beds there are the most comfortable type, she explains. Sex with Jim is a microsecond experience, but Anika keeps coming back for more. She refuses to call her subsequent meetings with Jim "dates." They are just having sex. Don't get your hopes up, however, since the sex is staged as awkwardly and uninterestingly as the rest of the movie, which doesn't contain a single genuine moment.
Jim is temporally living at home with his parents. Mary Kay Place plays his chirpy and oblivious mother. The family owns a factory in which everyone in their extended, blue collar family works. Mark Boone Junior plays Jim's uncle, a man who likes to be called only by his nickname of Evil. A grizzled biker type who actually rides a moped, Evil deals drugs openly on the factory floor.
After Tim unsuccessfully attempts to kill himself by crashing into a tree, Jim takes over Tim's responsibility for a little girl's basketball team. To say that Jim "coaches" them would be a misnomer. He just shows up with his constantly morose face and tells the girls to do whatever they want. Just before the final game of the season, he reminds them that they have gone all season -- fourteen games, no less -- without scoring a single point. What happens during the briefly shown, last match is as lame as the rest of the picture. Actually, to call LONESOME JIM lame would be something of a compliment. It doesn't possess enough emotion to work its way up to lame. Vacuous would be a better description for the film.
LONESOME JIM runs a long 1:31. It is rated R for "language, some sexuality and drug content" and would be acceptable for teenagers.
The film opens nationwide in the United States on Friday, March 31, 2006. In the Silicon Valley, it will be showing at the AMC theaters.
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