Lymelife

[andrews]

More Culkins! how many are there?

6/10

He has five more brothers! There was a sister too but she died in an accident.

Saw the name, thought , no, surely not....

[Beate]

Rory is the spitting image of Macaulay.

[cinefila1]

After watching the film I had to look this up. It seems that Lyme disease is the most common tick-borne disease in the Northern Hemisphere.


"Lyme disease, or lyme borreliosis, is an emerging infectious disease caused by at least three species of bacteria belonging to the genus Borrelia. Borrelia burgdorferi is the main cause of Lyme disease in the United States, whereas Borrelia afzelii and Borrelia garinii cause most European cases. The disease is named after the town of Lyme, Connecticut, USA, where a number of cases were identified in 1975. Although Allen Steere realized in 1978 that Lyme disease was a tick-borne disease, the cause of the disease remained a mystery until 1982, when B. burgdorferi was identified by Willy Burgdorfer."

Although not exactly a cheerie film, I did enjoy it. It is excellent at portraying the unfolding human drama and I thought it was well acted and executed. Rory, Alec and Timothy give a great performance

[the fox]

Saw this in Leicester this morning, only 16 of us, not sure if it was because it was a Times+ thing or peeps just weren't interested. There were no issues getting in they didn't even check/take our tickets from us, just directed us to the screening. 

Agree with you about Rory looking like his brother, when he was combing his hair at the start of the film it could have been the scene from Home Alone when Macaulay was doing the same it just looked like an older version. 

[spoiler]What a strange ending, thought he would have shot the wife[/spoiler]

[superhero]

Yes it deals with lots of important issues, but in ways that you don't really care too much about the characters. It's one of those films you have seen many times and done alot better, those surbarban dysfunctional american dramas. It's like American Beauty ultra-lite....
It just didn't feel anything new or exciting. With this kind of genre, I much prefer Revolutionary Road (one of my favs). I think showing it on a Sunday morning when the weather is oh so lovely, doesn't really help! The Culkins were bearable but should have b*ght more depth to the film I think. It's very average, I don't know why timesplus would want to associate with it.... 5/10

[AYBG]

To see a trailer or rate this film, please click here »




Directed by Derick Martini

Starring: Alec Baldwin, Rory Culkin, Jill Hennessy, Emma Roberts, Timothy Hutton, Cynthia Nixon

Plot: A coming of age dramedy where infidelity, real estate, and Lyme disease have two families falling apart on Long Island in the early eighties. Scott, 15, is at the point in his life when he finds out that the most important people around him, his father, his mother, and his brother, are not exactly who he thought they were. They are flawed and they are human.

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[kevinknapman]

An entertaining enough movie. Well acted by everyone involved.
The downside was the familiarity. As superhero said this kind of story has been done many times before and done better, most notably The Ice Storm and American Beauty. It ticked off several of the suburban drama cliches. The parents being more dysfunctional than the kids. The boy who's in love with the girl next door who treats him like a friend or younger brother. The two brothers, the older one despises the father, the younger one initially looks up to him but soon sees he's not the perfect role model he thinks he is. The outside force used to highlight the corruption within (here it was Lyme disease, in The Ice Storm it was Watergate) Even the model of the new housing estate, used to show the idealised neighbourhood they long for, contrasting with the disappointing reality, has been used as a visual motif before.
The uncertain setting didn't exactly help either. Apparently it was set in the late 70's but a lot of the music was from the early 70's. There were also references to the Iranian hostage crisis which started in 1979 and the Falklands which took place in 1982 (Why the brother would go to the Falklands when there was no US involvement is anybody's guess). Dr Ruth also didn't become well known until the early 80's. Oh and on a geeky note, Lando Calrissian didn't appear in the Star Wars saga until 1980 either. Anachronisms can often go unnoticed and not matter but a couple of them were a little too glaring.
But as I said, despite all that, it was watchable and the acting was really good.

[kevinknapman]

Rory is the spitting image of Macaulay.

But a better actor I think. That much has been obvious ever since he appeared in 'You Can Count on Me' back in 2000. He was pretty good in 'Mean Creek' too.
Keiran not so good, although I have high hopes for his performance as Wallace in 'Scott Pilgrim vs. The World'.

[prettyxcool]

Saw this at Apollo this morning, walked right in as Beate says.

Very slow film, took a very long time to get to any point, but good acting on some very hard topics. A tense and predictable ending. Didn't realise there were so many Culkin brothers, but they were very good. It was not a particularly good film, but it was not totally bad either. 6/10

[ejwrank]

We liked it. We thought it was well acted by everyone and I rarely say that. Yes there were historical inaccuracies and we really weren't sure about the time frame--and why was it placed in Long Island?
I read that all the filming was done in New Jersey (my home state but I guess that wasn't grand enough??). Still we thought it one of the better American films we have seen in a long time.