Lymelife, 2008
Dir. Derick Martini"You meant Millennium Falcon in a good way, right?"
Lymelife is a clever and enjoyable indie film about dysfunctional relationships, and the affects they have on family life. It's about Scott Bartlett (Rory Culkin) a teenage boy growing up in Long Island in the 1970's where lyme disease is rapidly becoming the large concern of the times, much like the swine flu's prevalence today, and the bird flu of the last decade. His best friend Adrianna's (Emma Roberts) father is actually undergoing the illness which leads to problems in not only Adrianna's family, but Scott's family as well.
The best thing I can say about this film is that it's floored by stellar performances. Rory Culkin, who I'm really only familiar with from Signs, holds his own amidst Alec Baldwin, Jill Henessey, Timothy Hutton, and Cynthia Nixon who all give very strong performances. Baldwin's performance alone is a much more subtle and drastic change.
The melodrama of the story is what largely drives it forward, and it's interesting to see how all these characters interact and intertwine with one another. It makes for a tense and moody film, that happens to be pretty entertaining and a fascinating watch. But as with most indie films and coming-of-age stories, or god forbid indie coming-of-age tales, it manages to be entertaining, if not largely forgettable.
No matter how strong the performances are, and they are very strong, the story isn't quite up to par with the best Hollywood has to offer. It's shot extremely well, and again the characters are fascinating, but the story isn't anything to write home about. It serves the film well enough, but there's a reason no one remembers this film and it didn't get any recognition this award season. Easy recommendation, but it's nothing that's going to set the film world ablaze.
3 out of 5
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