Lonesome Jim (2005)

Whilst this is most definitely a well crafted piece of film-making, it's thoroughly without any entertainment value whatsoever.

If you're depressed already, this film will send you over the edge.

If you're feeling somewhat depressed, this film will be just one more thing in your life to feel bitter about. You'll feel that it's just your luck to have chosen to watch a movie that turns out to be a complete waste of time.

Otherwise you might be able to make it through this film unscathed (I didn't, BTW), safe in the knowledge that your life is so much better than Jim's. Then again you might consider that you have been fooling yourself, and that are in fact in a much worse situation than you'd previously realized. You might feel a bit annoyed at Jim for bringing this to your attention. You may want to slap him around a bit with a wet fish.

The sad truth is, much as I wanted to like this movie... I hated it. It took rather a long miserable road down the path of oblivion and then suddenly, for no reason whatsoever, looked back at itself and then stopped.

Jim does not have an epiphany, at least not one that is conveyed on screen. Jim has a miserable life and a miserable set of options. He discovers nothing that one can relate to and fails to make any significant progress on his journey of self-discovery.

Of course no-one alive could write a happy ending to this movie. As others have said it's no Hollywood tale, it's gritty and it's real. It's well made. Life is quite a struggle at times. If anyone were to know "the answer", they do well to shout it from the rooftops.

Still, I feel cheated because this movie pretends to have something to say. You feel that it's going to say something, that if you just suffer through a little more of it, it'll have something to say. It'll make you stop and think.

It doesn't.

Again, I do submit that this is a well crafted film. And therefore may be of value to a film student with a penchant for e.g. lighting techniques of the use of colour palettes.

For the rest of us, it's utterly miss-able.

Fmovies: this movie was pretty good , i enjoyed it. the dry sense of humour in this film will probably not be to everyones taste, but none the less , it does have a few gags in it that even the most cheery folk would laugh at.if you have ever grown up and left home and returned to experience the "small town mentality", then you will probably like this film . I did think the film could have done with an injection of adrenalin half way through as by that point u are kind of mystified as to why the lead character is still depressed. despite this, it was a pretty good attempt and overall it is a feel good film . the only major disappointment was the ending of the movie , which can be predicted after watching the opening ten minutes.i also thought the casting wasn't that great. affleck looks just a little too cool and smug as the lonely Jim , and Tyler plays the same character she seems to play in every other movie i have seen her in (mrs sexy + sensitive) .overall , this movie is not bad , but could have been better.

I can't believe this films moderately low rating and the negative comments. I seen Lonesome Jim during the film festival in Athens Ohio at OU and I loved it!Lathargic is a horrible way to describe it. I would call it a dark comedy but not Lathargic. The plot isn't really revealed until late but it isn't important because its a character driven story. The cynical humor had the crowd at Athens laughing throughout the entire film myself included. There is some adult humor but if thats not aimed at you I have to ask why are you watching or rating this movie? Casey, Liv and the rest keep things over the top and fresh and the overall presentation is a nice change of pace from the standard summer movie.Clever writing. This should be shown in select theaters and i know a whole army of fans in Ohio are waiting for the DVD.

Lonesome Jim fmovies. You can object to the choice to make this film about a so-called depressive. You can object that Jim doesn't just snap out of it. But of all the things you can say about Lonesome Jim, you can't say it is badly made.

This film is like a meditation: it totally clears the mind of everything else and allows you to focus on what is there in front of you.

The grainy film did not strike me as low quality or cheap. It made the film like watching home movies; there is nothing glamorous about this scene. It was totally in keeping with the theme of muted emotion. The graininess sometimes slows things down so much that the characters appear to be talking through the haze of their dull surroundings, and they are the liveliest things about the situation. It almost transforms film into a cartoon drama by the younger sibling.

Is the main character Jim (Casey Affleck) suffering from depression? Well, alright. But that assessment papers over the interesting sources of the emotion stifling: the relationship between son and parents, and how he has subverted his personality with them; and the relationship he has with the rest of his hometown.

The whole thing is so real – we especially digest meaning during Jim's driving scenes, inevitably at twilight when the post industrial fading rural landscape is at its most evocative, stirring feelings of profound longing and sadness.

(There must be a retrospective of Sensitive Boy flicks somewhere. To my recollection, Ordinary People could be the first in the series, but among the others, and I'm sure there are many, many more than I can think of here, are You Can Count on Me, and Imaginary Heroes. I've also heard that Garden State could be slotted in there, but I haven't seen it.)

This is a brilliant film.

So why not give it 10 out of 10? Because we do not know yet if it will stand the test of time. Already Ordinary People does not pack the same punch as did 20 odd years ago. Also, these films have a relatively small theme. So though while intense and delicate in emotional depiction, their reach is rather narrow and might not possess any universal themes. They are particularly US-centric. Which is fine, but it precludes them from greatness.

Laughing about other people's misery is something many of us like to do. Lonesome Jim gives us ample opportunity to do so. The admirable thing is, that the events and comments that make us laugh out loud here, aren't contrived or even over the top. There are people like that, they talk like that, they put each other down like that and most of all: they get by, just like that. Jim goes out of his way to avoid challenges, and that is nothing uncommon. The movie is painfully honest about average people's lives, and that is what makes this movie not just funny, but also heart-wrenching to see. It *is* funny though, very much so, even. The laughter in the audience was so loud at times I couldn't make out the next sentence. The characters know not to expect too much of life, and they don't. But they get by, just like we do, and with a little love, a little companionship and a little bit of happiness, that is enough.

This is a great film which superbly walks the balance between bleak and hopeful, without ever becoming annoyingly angst ridden or overtly perky. Mary Kay Place, who has been such a solid supporting performer throughout her career, is Oscar worthy as the ever optimistic mom who shows layers upon layers with the simplest gesture -- a wonderful, comic performance. It would be a true tragedy, however likely it is, if the distributors do not put some muscle into a campaign in her favor. Buscemi's direction and the tightrope walk of a script is captivating throughout. Shot on mini-dv and certainly there have been better shot dv features. Film tends to get real noisy in the darks, and the titles during opening credits break to pixels. Too bad too, because it is unlikely this film will be taken as seriously as it deserves to be because the filmmakers/producers failed to take time/cost to make it right.