Review in a Hurry: Somewhere between the piercing Ice Storm and the charming Freaks & Geeks lies the vast wasteland of the ’70s family drama. Writer/director Derick Martini lays it on thick with failed marriages, bullies and a debilitating disease. Fortunately, Rory Culkin, Alec Baldwin and Emma Roberts breathe life into the comings and goings of two very miserable families.
The Bigger Picture: Culkin stars as Scott Bartle, a 15-year-old from a well-to-do household who suffers beatings and humiliation in the midst of a bad economy. His brother (real-life bro Kieran Culkin) has returned home en route to the Falkland Islands, and while he can certainly protect Scott from the town alpha male, things only seem to get worse with his arrival.
Their real-estate-tycoon father (Baldwin) is too busy creating the suburban utopia Bartletown to be a good dad, and their mother (Jill Hennessy) insists on wrapping Scott in electric tape ever since their neighbor contracted Lyme disease. Was anyone ever happy in the Me Decade?
Scott’s only real friend is Adrianna (Roberts). Culkin does a fine job as a picked-on sensitive type, but it’s Emma who really shines. The starlet proves herself as she breaks free from Disney days (Hotel for Dogs, Nancy Drew) to tackle teen angst among the severely depressed. She’s the one person in the film who can lighten the mood.
Baldwin sheds most of his 30 Rock bluster, and Timothy Hutton plays Adrianna’s dad, the unlucky guy who‘s contracted the titular disease and is married to a less than faithful Cynthia Nixon.
Save for Roberts, the rest of the cast wallows (and so well) in the murk of self-pity and confusion that was the post-Vietnam era. It might sound like a bummer time at the multiplex, but these are the kinds of families that linger long after the film is over.
The 180—a Second Opinion: An independent film about dysfunctional families is as cookie-cutter as the homes in Bartletown. If you don’t take to the cast, Lymelife could leave you underwhelmed.
