BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment

PiraBit if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

Aiden Melton The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

Portia Hilton Blistering performances.

Tim Kidner Like many US indie films, there's real sense of the extraordinary coming through from the very ordinary, here, with Lymelife.Throughout, there was a real sense of odd detachment about it, especially in the scenes with the sufferer of the disease (Lymes) in question, Timothy Hutton, who keeps seeing a deer from his sick bed and then goes off out into the winter landscape to hunt it down, with a rifle....The film itself was on late on BBC2 and I wish now that I'd been more alert to appreciate it, but what I did, is certainly memorable enough. Like Ang Lee's excellent The Ice Storm (set in the same 1970's) and in commuter belt Long Island, it's a gritty and often unsettlingly difficult to watch relationship drama. The family politics go haywire as father Alec Baldwin has an affair, which is one story and the other, that other reviewers have touched on, is of Rory Culkin finding his sexuality amongst this upset and upheaval.Apart from the often cringe-inducing 'fashions' and hairstyles, it is probably his touching and nuanced performance as he fumbles with finding his first sexual experience that is the most memorable. Against the backdrop of Baldwin's often self righteous shouting rants, you can't but feel for him and his vulnerability and innocence.As always, buying yet another DVD to view a film properly is offset against cash, so I might have to wait for it to reappear on TV somewhere before I can be reacquainted. I feel that it has the capabilities of being a very fine film, if offbeat and well worth taking a second look at. Intrigued!

Ralphcycle1 I'm not certain what happened to this film and how it eluded me for so long. Released in 2009, this is a story about two American families coming apart during the 1970's. It's very well told from Rory Culkin's character's perspective, as a young teen discovering his parent's marriage is pretty acrimonious. It also has a coming of age feel to it as Culkin gets his bum whipped, then watches his older brother (played marvelously by real brother Kieran Culkin) literally pulverizes the bully who beat his kid brother. Alec Baldwin, who becomes the focus of most of Culkin's ire, is a true standout. I would say this is his best work since Glengarry Glenross. It also features Emma Roberts in a role that could have easily become a one note sex symbol but she makes it very real and adds depth. Especially during an unforgettable loss of virginity scene that is so uncomfortable even though the actors are fully clothed. I almost took a point away for the ending but then I re-watched it and understood that it was supposed to be just a few simple momenta that ended the film. All the drama had happened and any more would have probably put it too far over the top. This is not a comedy. It is funny. Very funny at times. But not in a yuk yuk way. these people are real and some of the things they say and do are funny in a real sort of way. And it's also a bit heartbreaking. I don't know how I missed this one. It is a classic of the genre.

James Hitchcock 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

jotix100 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!