Tuesday, September 05, 2006 03:34:15 AM
DVD PICK
Lonesome Jim
Small towns are what people leave in fiction to find their dreams in the big city. After a struggle
these heroes make their way to the top of the sporting or business world. They never get kicked back
to the small town.
Not so for 27-year-old Jim, played by Casey Affleck. He returns to small-town Indiana, back to his room,
back to the universe he intended to leave behind. It doesn't take long to realize why he packed up in the
first place. By the look of him, he might as well have the word "loser" tatooed on his forehead.
(When he does finally get a job back home, it would have to be with a girl's basketball team that
can never win a game.)
Jim's dream was to become a writer. All of his literary heroes, though, have a penchant for
looking on the depressing side of life, and so does he.
Nevertheless, this is a comedy. Well, a comedy in the off-beat sense from indie film fixture Steve Buscemi,
the actor who in this case directs.
Jim in no way has the worst lot of the bunch. Take his going-nowhere brother with two kids to support
who moves back home before he does, and his parents with whom there is an eternal disconnect.
During his journeyof discovery, Jim meets the lovely Anika (Liv Tyler), the bright light in this dark
tale, someone who will get Jim's wheels moving again.
As to be expected with Buscemi, the laughs and the surprises come when you least expect them.
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