Lymelife (2008)
Average Rating: 6/10
Reviews Counted: 109
Fresh: 68 | Rotten: 41
Lymelife features sharp performances, but the story lacks the emotional depth or focus worthy of its talented cast.
Average Rating: 6.6/10
Critic Reviews: 32
Fresh: 23 | Rotten: 9
Lymelife features sharp performances, but the story lacks the emotional depth or focus worthy of its talented cast.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.2/5
User Ratings: 18,513
My Rating
Movie Info
A family unit begins to bow under the pressure of a failing marriage.
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Cast
-
Alec Baldwin
Mickey Bartlett -
Rory Culkin
Scott Bartlett -
Emma Roberts
Adrianna Bragg -
Jill Hennessy
Brenda Bartlett -
Timothy Hutton
Charlie Bragg -
Cynthia Nixon
Melissa Bragg -
Kieran Culkin
Jimmy Bartlett -
Logan Huffman
Blaze Salado -
Brandon Thane Wilson
Stuart -
Derick Martini
Photographer -
Adam Scarimbolo
Todd O'Leary -
Phillip Pennestri
Father Pazzo -
Louis Ruffolo Jr.
Bartender
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All Critics (109) | Top Critics (32) | Fresh (69) | Rotten (43) | DVD (4)
At no point did I feel bored or condescended to, and even though the ending may be overwrought, it had me gripping my chair.
Top CriticSolid, but forgettable.
Another film that looks back at late seventies' suburbia with a mixture of tenderness and condescension.
Even in its darkest moments there are flashes of warm comedy and gentle farce that lend the story considerable credibility and charm.
Overall the film feels like The Ice Storm or American Beauty on training wheels, but Martini's next efforts could be well worth watching.
The players dazzle, but co-writer-director Martini has attrracted this cast with chewy roles and a sharp metaphor, a disease that tears down the veneer of normality.
Lymelife captures the look and feel of a very specific era in American life.
Shaky in spots, but rewarding overall.
The rest of the cast is splendid, including Alec Baldwin, a long way from the network executive on the TV sitcom 30 Rock.
[A] fine chronicle of disaffection, dissolution and lust on Long Island in the 1970s.
Culkin and Roberts hit the right balance of savviness and clumsiness as teenagers who are smart enough to see what their parents try to conceal.
A slight feeling of déjà vu pervades its depiction of unhappy families. But it has a tender heart, and the imprimatur of Martin Scorsese as executive producer.
Though not particularly original, Lymelife is well acted and smart, and the Martini brothers' work is worth following.
Martini coasts on ambience and good song choices (some associated with the films of his executive producer, Martin Scorsese) and rallies with a refreshingly ambiguous ending.
Tthe third-act plot developments telegraph themselves well in advance.
The movie is an indie jewel; watch it shine.
The film was meant to be a tear-jerker, but the only tears I encountered were the ones that I was bored to.
Like The Ice Storm, Martini's story climaxes with a devastating event, but whereas the earlier film's denouement had the force of tragedy, Lymelife's ending appears overly contrived.
Boasting an outstanding ensemble cast, this small-budget indie is an at-times poignant tale of family life.
There's nothing remotely original about Derick Martini's saga of American suburban life in the late Seventies. It has all been done before - but Martini's first feature is so sharply written and well acted that it appears fresh as a daisy.
Derick Martini's first feature may inhabit similar territory to The Ice Storm and American Beauty, but it's not overshadowed by them.
While they may not claim the marquee power of Baldwin or Nixon, Culkin and Roberts bring Lymelife its best performances and help boost the film above the ranks of the ordinary, dysfunctional family tale.
An attractive indie film package, but a desperately routine one that shock value cannot salvage.
Audience Reviews for Lymelife
Super Reviewer
Very good Film. Great acting and superb story, I quite enjoyed it alot. Emma Roberts continues to surprise me with such great energy and suave. I highly recommended because is in fact quite lifting and a great piece of cinema.
Set in the late 70's, seen through the innocent eyes of a fifteen year old boy, SCOTT, "Lymelife" is a unique take on the dangers of the American Dream. This funny, sad, violent and sometimes tragic look at first love, family dynamics and divorce weaves an intricate tapestry of American life during a time of drastic economic and emotional change.
Super Reviewer
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- Charlie Bragg: It's the bad kind.
-
- Todd O'Leary: Fart-lett.
-
- Scott Bartlett: You know, you can always hear the train on Long Island, no matter how far away.
- Adrianna Bragg: What are you Walt Whitman now?
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- Mickey Bartlett: So... do you have syphilis?
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I think Flixster Super Reviewer Pamela De Graff said it best: "We've seen Lymelife's somber imputation in other movies about suburban values and relationships, Lymelife's is not a pensively warm-hearted slice of life, nor merely a bleakly cynical condemnation of the American dream. It's a reasoned, dryly tongue-in-cheek indictment of yuppie hypocrisies and contradictions."
And I liked the acting -- particularly by Keiran Culkin, who has grown up into a smarmy smart ass.
Overall, I think writing more would be redundant as I found De Graff's review to be spot on and more intelligently written than I can attempt here.