Manages to be bitter, dispiriting and utterly pointless all at once.
Comment
05/19/06
Lonesome Jim (2006)
43
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:23
Fresh:10
Rotten:13
Average Rating:5.7/10
Consensus: Though Lonesome Jim is leavened by sweet, understated humor, it's hard to root for such a morose, self-defeating protagonist.
Theatrical Release:Mar 24, 2006 Limited
Synopsis: With LONESOME JIM, director Steve Buscemi delivers another low-budget gem about small-town American life. Boasting a fresh script courtesy of James C. Strouse, the film begins when 27-year-old Jim... [More]
Starring: Casey Affleck, Liv Tyler, Mary Kay Place, Seymour Cassel
Director: Steve Buscemi
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Reviews for Lonesome Jim
Top CriticIt all feels very slight.
05/19/06
Top CriticThe problem is that a little of this minimalist kitchen-sink farce goes a very long way, and after a while Lonesome Jim starts to dry up.
05/05/06
Top CriticA slight, but amusing and occasionally touching, dark comedy about depression and dysfunction that percolates with indie film hipness.
04/20/06
Top CriticThe biggest problem Buscemi has is that his central character has, by definition, very little distinct character.
04/14/06
Top CriticWhile Lonesome Jim may be clinically acute, it is by its very nature dramatically inert.
04/14/06
Top CriticIt is packed with delightfully silly vignettes that had me squirming in my seat with laughter.
04/13/06
Top CriticThe script is adroit: It doesn't force the humor, and it steadily keeps track of Jim's growing maturity.
04/13/06
Top CriticJim's characters may grow on you after a slow setup and, like a hot plate of grits, may stick with you.
04/07/06
Top CriticMr. Affleck is burdened with the difficult task of making moroseness seem interesting. He doesn't succeed, and neither does the movie.
04/07/06
Top CriticNothing in this well-intentioned but lifeless indie draws the hard laughter that comes from creating characters that somehow get to you.
03/31/06
Top Critic[Strouse] has written a forlorn and poetic story, and Buscemi has made it into a movie about taking a deep breath and deciding to stop being a mope.
03/30/06
Top CriticLonesome Jim -- despite its excellent cast, controlled direction and moody, well-judged atmospherics -- tends to alienate us, just as Affleck's Jim does.
03/30/06
Top CriticSteve Buscemi’s a very good director.
03/28/06
Top CriticIf Lonesome Jim feels like it's perpetually on the verge of evaporating, Buscemi brings to the material the boundless empathy for misfits and screw-ups he displayed in Trees Lounge.
03/24/06
Top CriticIndie moviegoers have met slackers like Jim before, but he's still good company. The laughs are frequent while the emotions ring true.
03/24/06
Top CriticOne of those indie excursions to Loserville that lasts an hour and a half but feels longer than Roots.
03/24/06
Top CriticThe real problem is its absolute absence of energy.
03/24/06
Top CriticThe 27-year-old protagonist of Steve Buscemi's deadpan comedy Lonesome Jim lives out the worst nightmare of every bushy-tailed go-getter who moves to New York to Be Somebody (in his case, a writer) and fails miserably.
03/23/06
Top CriticThere's nothing for Jim to do but sulk in a local bar on the corner of Nowheresville and Stuckforlife.
03/22/06
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