Good start, but then it gets ruined

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

First off this is NOT the "laugh out loud, violently funny" comedy that is advertised on the front of the box. There are some minor moments of humor and most of that is uncomfortably funny. The film takes place in 1979, with music from an earlier time, and a lame indie style soundtrack. Charley (Timothy Hutton) has Lyme disease. He is not all there, but is not totally out of it. His wife, Melissa (Cynthia Nixon) works for Mickey Bartlett (Alec Baldwin). He is an architect on Long Island and she sells real estate. Scott Bartlett (Rory Culkin) emulates his dad and has a love interest in Adrianna (Emma Roberts) the daughter of Charley and Melissa. Jimmy (Kieran Culkin) is Scott's brother who is home from leave from the army. Jill Hennessy plays Brenda, the unhappy wife of Mickey who wants to go back to the Queens.The film was excellently acted and was perhaps too uncomfortable for my liking. There are scenes of adultery and fighting as the movie centers around how Scott copes with life in his "coming of age" story. If you are looking for a well acted indie drama about long island and Lyme disease, this is it. If you want a quirky laugh out loud fumy production, look elsewhere.Excessive f-bombs, minor sex scene, nude magazine centerfold.

I can only presume that the title "Lymelife" is a contrived pun on the word "limelight" and on the fact that an outbreak of Lyme disease plays a part in the plot. The film is a "coming-of-age" drama set on the Long Island of 1979. (It is sometimes described as a "comedy", although there was little about it which struck me as comic). The main character is fifteen-year-old Scott Bartlett, and the film charts the tangled web of relationships between the Bartletts and their neighbours the Braggs. Essentially, Scott's mother Brenda is having an affair with next-door-neighbour Charlie Bragg, while his father Mickey is having an affair with Charlie's wife Melissa. Meanwhile, Scott is dating the Braggs' daughter Adrianna. There should really be something in Leviticus to cover this situation. ("Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of the woman whose father has uncovered thy mother's nakedness and whose mother has uncovered thy father's nakedness……").Youth can be a time of joy, excitement and enthusiasm, but the film-makers, the brothers Derick and Steven Martini, like many makers of similar dramas, seem less interested in these aspects of life than in hormonally-driven teenage angst. The film is said to be autobiographical, but as the Martinis would only have been four and one years old in 1979 they presumably projected their own teenage experiences backward in time from the early nineties to the late seventies. Part of the problem lies with Rory Culkin, younger brother of Macaulay, as Scott, who seems to be perpetually shrouded in gloom and misery. (Another Culkin brother, Kieran, also appears as Scott's older brother Jimmy). It doesn't help that Culkin was actually twenty when the film was made, five years older than the character he portrays. The best of the adults is probably Alec Baldwin as Mickey, but even he cannot arouse much interest.Independently produced "coming-of-age" dramas are not all bad- indeed, there have been some excellent examples. For every "Ordinary People" or "Gregory's Girl", however, there are several dreary sagas, and it is into this latter category that "Lymelife" falls. (Timothy Hutton, the star of "Ordinary People", appears here as Charlie). The film seems to have been made primarily for connoisseurs of suburban misery. 4/10

Life in suburbia carries some risks. Not everything turns out to be as expected, in spite of the ideal setting of the new area. Take the Bartletts, of Long Island, for example. They have gone from Queens into an undisclosed location of the "island", as it is known by its inhabitants. We meet Mickey and Brenda, as well as Scott, their teenager son. They have another son, Jim, who has joined the armed forces and has undergone basic training. It is the last year of the 1970s decade. By all indications, the family should be enjoying their good fortune, but in reality they seem to be falling apart. The story is seen through Scott's eyes.Mickey Bartlett, the father, is developing an area for new upscale homes. His assistant happens to be Melissa Bragg, his next door neighbor. Melissa's husband Charlie, has been suffering from Lyme disease, a debilitating condition that has made him unable to work. The Braggs have a daughter, Adrianna, who is friendly with Scott, even attending the same high school as him. Unknown to everyone is the affair Mickey has been having with Melissa, something that Charlie has kept to himself and Adrianna and Scott learn, the hard way.When Jim, the eldest son, turns up for a Thanksgiving celebration, things take an unexpected turn. Scott, who is bullied at the school, reveals the confrontation with his tormentor. Jim goes to defend his brother, beating the other boy. Brenda ruins the turkey by burning it and the family ends up eating TV dinners. When Brenda goes to Charlie's house overhears the passionate encounter between her husband and Melissa, something that serves her to ask Mickey to get out of her life.Adrianna, a popular girl in school, likes one of the jocks. Scott, secretly in love with her, can only look. As the break between the Bartletts become real, Adrianna gets closer to Scott, in spite of his telling another boy he has been intimate with the girl. Adrianna reveals she is a virgin, but she is willing to try to remedy that condition with Scott. Charlie, who has been seen throughout the story walking the woods in search of the deer that have created the condition he finds himself in, decides to go after one deer by taking his rifle. Unfortunately, his action will have tragic consequences.A terrific film by Derick Martini, who together with his brother Steven wrote the screenplay. There are aspects of the story that kept reminding this viewer of Ang Lee's "The Ice Storm", although there are two different situations completely. The beauty of the story is that one can understand how each family got to the situation we are asked to witness. There must be a lot of happy families in suburbia, but for movie purposes, that happiness is only a myth, or so it appears to be the case. Of course, fulfilled families do not make good movies.Rory Culkin makes an outstanding appearance as Scott, the sad teenager who sees the disintegration of his home life. There are never wrong moments for this actor through the film. Alec Baldwin is also amazing with his crude Mickey Bartlett, a self made man on the brink of becoming a millionaire with his real estate project. Timothy Hutton's complex take on Charlie is equally fine. The other principals, Emma Roberts, Jill Hennessy, Cynthia Nixon and Kieran Culkin give good performances.Frank Godwin's cinematography gets us a feeling of being in a place that on all appearances seem great, but it is somewhat hard to understand. Steve Martini is credited as the composer of the original music heard in the film. It is ironic a film about Long Island was actually shot in New Jersey!

This film is about a troubled suburban family. The couple's marriage is disintegrating, and the two sons use different ways to cope with what they experience."Lymelife" has interesting characters. I think Timothy Hutton gives the best performance in this film. Even though his role consists of only a few speaking parts, he is very memorable as a depressed man filled with anger and wrath. The interaction between Emma Roberts and Rory Culkin is also very good. The way their relationship blossom is satisfying and engaging. In addition, Kieran Culkin's speech to his brother outside the pub serves as an emotional high point in the film. The only slight complaint I have is the slow pacing, otherwise it is a moderately engaging look at a troubled suburban family.