Lymelife begins exactly the way its creators want it to. It has a confusing, off-kilter feel to the opening scenes, forcing its various plot points onto the audience in order to, they hope, root you in the story and its characters. However, when it's handled with such dizzying force and the tone rolls around like a pinball, the audience can only respond with bewilderment and indifference.
Brother writers Derick and Steven Martini based the screenplay loosely on their own lives growing up on Long Island in the late 1970s. It always amuses me when writers and directors attempt to exploit personal experience as a catalyst for exploring supposed universal themes and ideas. Why use their own lives at all if so loosely? Certainly the outcome of this film did not happen to them, meaning what was the point of starting with a pseudo-real outline if they were just going to divert from it so quickly? At the same time, why is this story set in the late '70s? There are a few cultural references such as US troops being sent to the Falklands and a brief reminder of the Iran hostage crisis, but otherwise the setting is completely arbitrary. If anything, this points to the Martini's attempting to emulate The Ice Storm too much. They strain to give their story emotional content through the setting rather than the characters. As a result, both remain lifeless and inert.
Much of the cast seems willing to go the extra mile necessary to breathe life into this story, yet director Derick seems to hold them back at the most critical moments. At this point in his career, Alec Baldwin has seemingly perfected the chiseled-handsome, narcissistic too confident in his accomplishments to see the reality of his actions. Yet, in at least two scenes where he is ready to pounce on the material and tear it wide open, Martini cuts away, as if to leave us hanging deliberately and ponder what might have been. This also causes Baldwin's performance (and others) to come across as stilted. He may be chiseled but his emotions are often trapped in that stony exterior, requiring a little excavation. Jill Hennessy floats but is still swept away by Baldwin in their scenes, while brothers Rory and Kieran Culkin show the best chemistry; effortless, smooth and very natural. Emma Roberts seems to have a breakout role on tap here, but again the director pulls away at times when she could have really let go on her character. Still, her alabaster skin and wide doe eyes are nearly irresistible, proving yet still that she is an actress to watch for in the future.
What will bother most is the ending, which is always problematic for these dysfunctional suburbia movies. After all this angst, guilt and turmoil, how does one leave the audience with something memorable and finalizing? Unfortunately, in this case the result is quite cowardly and feeble. If it is supposed to leave us hanging in the balance it does but not for the right reasons. Instead of wondering how or why, we don't wonder at all.
Brother writers Derick and Steven Martini based the screenplay loosely on their own lives growing up on Long Island in the late 1970s. It always amuses me when writers and directors attempt to exploit personal experience as a catalyst for exploring supposed universal themes and ideas. Why use their own lives at all if so loosely? Certainly the outcome of this film did not happen to them, meaning what was the point of starting with a pseudo-real outline if they were just going to divert from it so quickly? At the same time, why is this story set in the late '70s? There are a few cultural references such as US troops being sent to the Falklands and a brief reminder of the Iran hostage crisis, but otherwise the setting is completely arbitrary. If anything, this points to the Martini's attempting to emulate The Ice Storm too much. They strain to give their story emotional content through the setting rather than the characters. As a result, both remain lifeless and inert.
Much of the cast seems willing to go the extra mile necessary to breathe life into this story, yet director Derick seems to hold them back at the most critical moments. At this point in his career, Alec Baldwin has seemingly perfected the chiseled-handsome, narcissistic too confident in his accomplishments to see the reality of his actions. Yet, in at least two scenes where he is ready to pounce on the material and tear it wide open, Martini cuts away, as if to leave us hanging deliberately and ponder what might have been. This also causes Baldwin's performance (and others) to come across as stilted. He may be chiseled but his emotions are often trapped in that stony exterior, requiring a little excavation. Jill Hennessy floats but is still swept away by Baldwin in their scenes, while brothers Rory and Kieran Culkin show the best chemistry; effortless, smooth and very natural. Emma Roberts seems to have a breakout role on tap here, but again the director pulls away at times when she could have really let go on her character. Still, her alabaster skin and wide doe eyes are nearly irresistible, proving yet still that she is an actress to watch for in the future.
What will bother most is the ending, which is always problematic for these dysfunctional suburbia movies. After all this angst, guilt and turmoil, how does one leave the audience with something memorable and finalizing? Unfortunately, in this case the result is quite cowardly and feeble. If it is supposed to leave us hanging in the balance it does but not for the right reasons. Instead of wondering how or why, we don't wonder at all.