Lymelife

Lymelife gives us something we've seen many times before, in everything from American Beauty to The Ice Storm and The Squid and the Whale. The American suburban dream isn't all that it's cracked up to be, lurking beneath the surfaceare just as many problems, just as much dysfunction as you'd see anywhere else. Which isn't to say that Lymelifeis a bad film, there are some very interesting scenes, good performances and even an insight or two. It just isn't anything new, or groundbreaking.

Growing up on Long Island in the late 70's, Scott Bartlett (Rory Culkin) would seem to have very few problems. He's got a good hearted, if over-protective mother (Jill Hennessy), a driven real estate developer father (Alec Baldwin) and a brother, Jimmy,on leave from the Army (Rory's real brother Kieran Culkin). There's even the perfect girl-next-door in his best friend/unrequited love Adrianna (Emma Roberts). Obviously things can't be quite that perfect though. Adrianna's father (Timothy Hutton) has recently come down with lyme disease, whihc is really putting a strain on his wife (Cynthia Nixon) and marriage, which puts them in just about the same boat as Scott's parents. Nobody is happy, everybody wants something that they can't have, and they're all trying to hide it.

The film moves in and out of these character's world at a leisurely pace, touching briefly on each story, until they all begin to weave together at the end. Just based on my own life experiences the story that drew me in the most was the interactions between Scott and Adrianna. I'm just a sucker for the possibly unrequited, working up the nerve to say something love story, and this is one of the better examples. Moments just rang true to life. Rory Culkin and Emma Roberts give fine performances, that have a naturalism, and heart to them that I found very appealing. I'm a little ambivalent towards the end of their story, it seems a little like a happy ending tacked on to balance out all the other stuff that goes wrong, but I can live with it.

Which isn't the only issue that I had with the structure of the film. In the process of trying to weave together all these stories, some things got lost in the shuffle. Scott's brother Jimmy really has no character arc, he's introduced as this interesting character with a host of problems, but he disappears from the film without really addressing any of them. He gets to have his moment, but not much more than that. I would have loved to see more from him.

The character who really gets the short end of the stick from a story standpoint is Timothy Hutton's Charlie. His dealing with the collapse of the his marriage, and his lyme disease, is probably the most unique, and interesting part of the entire film, but he disappears for long stretches. If we could trade out some the scenes with his wife, who doesn't really add much to the film from a character standpoint, to delve deeper into Charlie I would love it. Instead we're given these brief glimpses, and a somewhat incoherent ending involving a possibly imaginary deer.

Even with these problems, which to be honest, are kind of nit picky, I found that I quite enjoyed the film. The performances are strong, the characters are mostly interesting, in a familiar sort of way, and the setting was different enough to be enjoyable. It doesn't bring anything new to the genre, but is good for what it is.

Grade: B