Lonesome Jim

June 4, 2008 - Casey Affleck barely cracks a smile in this 2005 comedy directed by Steve Buscemi. Liv Tyler, Mary Kay Place and Seymour Cassel also star.

Affleck plays Jim, a 20-something aspiring writer who goes back home to Indiana after a stint as a dog walker in New York City. He moves in with his parents (Place and Cassel) and his older brother Tim, a divorced dad. Soon, he meets Anika (Tyler), a nurse who's mom to a young son.

Jim is so full of doom and gloom that he all but incites his older brother into a suicide attempt. Then, when his mother is wrongly arrested and the family business temporarily closed, he does nothing to help the situation even though he has crucial information. Strangely, Anika does not run as fast as she can in the other direction.

Overall review: *** It probably doesn't quite deserve three stars, but two seemed a little low for a movie that's quirky and humorous and human. Besides, I still remember Seymour Cassel from his role in the under-appreciated TV show Under Suspicion. And, Place is good as the mom who covers up big disappointments in her own life by killing everyone else with kindness.