Lonesome Jim

last updated 8 January 2015

It’s tough to imagine “having a better time at a movie about depression,” said Peter Travers in Rolling Stone. Lonesome Jim starts with its loser protagonist returning to his family home in rural Indiana after failing to make it as a writer in New York. There, he joins his even bigger loser of a brother, Tim, his overly doting mother, and his aloof dad. While the film, based on an autobiographical script by James C. Strouse, is “minimalist to the point of vapor,” director Steve Buscemi “makes sure this deadpan delight finds its wily way into your heart.” But Buscemi can’t always get viewers past the screenplay’s central problem, said Dennis Harvey in Variety. Jim is simply unlikable. His act “doesn’t seem all that worth getting together.” This is partly a casting problem. Casey Affleck is “too passive and withdrawn an actor to make those traits as amusing, perverse, or poignant as intended.” When Jim hooks up with Anika, a cheery, promiscuous nurse played by Liv Tyler, we wonder what she can possibly see in him, said Christy Lemire in the Associated Press. He’s not only depressed and depressing, but “he never changes and neither does anyone else.”

Rating: R