Lonesome Jim

  • 91'
  • USA
  • 2005
In Lonesome Jim, 27-year-old Jim (Casey Affleck) returns, reluctantly and filled with self-pity, to his parental home in a small town in rural Indiana. He is there to 'find himself', but really he's just broke. Jim has a sweet but overpowering mother, a distant father and a pretty depressed elder brother, Tim. After Tim has a car smash, Jim feels obliged to take on his brother's tasks: coaching a children's basketball team and working in his parents' factory, where his scary cousin Evil is a dominant presence. But Jim's heart skips a beat when he meets Anika (Liv Tyler), an attractive younger nurse who lives on her own with her little son. The productive Steve Buscemi - who has played more than eighty film roles in nineteen years and is now very active directing - has made a film with a strikingly good script (by James C. Strouse), filled with dry humour in the dialogues, and which excellently express the thoughts and feelings of the characters. Lonesome Jim looks authentic thanks to the atmospheric digital photography of the boring grey town, the excellent actors (including Mary Kay Place and Seymour Kassel as the parents) and the convincing use of location (Buscemi filmed in his home town, and the factory really does belong to his parents). What's more, this story with 'a laugh and a tear' even has a credible plot. (EH)
  • 91'
  • USA
  • 2005
Director
Steve Buscemi
Country of production
USA
Year
2005
Festival Edition
IFFR 2006
Length
91'
Medium
35mm
Language
English
Producers
Plum Pictures, Galt Niederhoffer
Sales
Bleiberg Entertainment Inc.
Screenplay
James C. Strouse
Cinematography
Phil Parmet
Editor
Plummy Tucker
Production Design
Chuck Voelter
Sound Design
Warren Shaw
Music
Alex Steyermark, Evan Lurie, Linda Cohen
Cast
Casey Affleck, Liv Tyler
Director
Steve Buscemi
Country of production
USA
Year
2005
Festival Edition
IFFR 2006
Length
91'
Medium
35mm
Language
English
Producers
Plum Pictures, Galt Niederhoffer
Sales
Bleiberg Entertainment Inc.
Screenplay
James C. Strouse
Cinematography
Phil Parmet
Editor
Plummy Tucker
Production Design
Chuck Voelter
Sound Design
Warren Shaw
Music
Alex Steyermark, Evan Lurie, Linda Cohen
Cast
Casey Affleck, Liv Tyler