Most major Hollywood studios have smaller partners that they use to produce some of their better independent movies. sometimes they incorporate several studio's to make one film, Such is the story of "Lymelife", a brilliant little story of a young man coming of age. Lymelife tells a story of a young boy growing up on Long island, it's a coming of age story that deals with infidelity, real estate, and Lyme disease.
Scott, (Rory Culkin) 15, is at the point in his life when he finds out that the most important people around him, his father, Mickey (Alec Baldwin) his mother, Brenda (Jill Hennessy) and his brother, Jimmy (Kieran Culkin) are not exactly who he thought they were. Scott is an average kid who gets bullied at school by Todd O'Leary (Adam Scarimbolo), Scott is only interested in one girl and that's Adrianna Bragg (Emma Roberts) his next door neighbor. Adrianna's father is Charlie Bragg (Timothy Hutton) who suffers from Lyme disease, he was bitten by a tick during a hunting trip. Mickey, Scott's dad is in real estate and his assistant is Melissa Bragg (Cynthia Nixon), they are trying to sell a huge plot of land to individual home buyers.
Mickey is the first one to buy a new plot. The only problem is that it's right next door to where they live now. This is Mikey's idea of upward mobility. The one problem of working so close together with Melissa is that it leads to an affair, although it doesn't help that Mickey chases after many women. One day when Mickey and Melissa think they are alone in the house they have sex in the basement on the pool table, unknown to them is the fact that Charlie is still at home, hiding in the basement. Charlie tells Melissa that he goes out every day looking for work, but he sits in the basement smoking marijuana. Scott daydreams about Adrianna all day long, the one person that he seems to get along with best is his brother Jimmy. Jimmy is on leave from the military and is quick to notice the bruises on Scott's face after he has been beaten up, he goes to Todd's house and pulls him outside and beats him up in turn. Jimmy tells Scott that he shouldn't have to deal with this kind of stuff.
The story doesn't seem to settle on one aspect of Scott's life, it moves quickly from one aspect to another, the pace is just slow enough that you begin to feel like an observer in the story unfolding around you. When Adrianna and Scott go to her house to be alone, they smoke some of her fathers marijuana, Melissa and Mickey come up from the basement, this is where Scott finds out that his father is cheating on his mother, Adrianna breaks it to him, not so gently either. Scott and his brother Jimmy hang out all day and the camaraderie between the two are the movies best aspect. When Jimmy gets called back to duty, he is going to the Falkland Islands, though this movie takes place around the early seventies the Falkland Island conflict was many years later. Jimmy tells Scott that his idea of what he does is wrong, Jimmy is a communications officer not an infantry soldier. Scott seems broken here, his life is falling apart around him and the one person he does care about the most shows little interest in him. Scott is so tired of the way his life is that in one touching scene, his parents are arguing about Mickeys cheating, Scott locks himself in the bathroom and cries, the tears are slow to come, but when they do, you feel his as if you can feel his pain. When Scott comes out he is a new person, he no longer hides his feeling, he tells his parents that he hates them, he not only defends himself from Todd's taunts but beats him up as well.
When Adrianna tells Scott she is still a virgin, and leads him upstairs to his bedroom, the tender way that they embrace is touching and moving. It is one of the the best depictions of first love and awkward sexual encounters that I have seen in a long time. The ending is a little disturbing, the Bragg's marriage falls apart, she can't live with his lying to her about looking for a job, while she was cheating on him. And the Bartlett's are coming back together. Scott and Adrianna ride the school bus together, sitting arm in arm, Mickey puts his new dream home up for sale, he has come to understand that he is most happy right where he is. As for Charlie, he is wasting away from his disease, he sees a deer in his yard and loads his rifle and goes off chasing after it, the ending sequence shows every character waiting for one of them to be in his cross hairs, the movie leaves this open to your own interpretation, although they do help lead you to a certain point. This is a very well written script, the story moves you in ways that most can't.
I give Lymelife a 3 and on my avoidance scale a 0, it is a shame that this very touching movie will be overlooked, only because the huge blockbuster summer movies will overshadow it. The one thing about indepenent films are they can move you to think and today Hollywood is almost afraid to make the audience think for themselves. Shame on you.
Lymelife is rated R for Language, Some Sexual Content, Violence and Drug Use
Running time is 1 hr. 34 mins.
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