Lonesome Jim | DVD Review

Character actor, Steve Buscemi’s LONESOME JIM is a quiet, simple tale that is sometimes a little too quiet and sometimes oversimplified but more often than not, an enjoyable film with peaceful pacing. Needing his own desperate change of pace, Jim (Casey Affleck) has returned home to a Midwestern nowhere town from Manhattan, not because he needs the comforts of home but because he is broke and has nowhere else to go. He suffers from chronic despair, believing that happy people are nothing more than blissfully ignorant people and to be woeful is to be real. It is a familiar theme – boy moves to the big city to give his life meaning and returns home to his humble beginnings to realize that meaning comes from within. As a director, Buscemi succeeds in the development of his leads but struggles with fleshing out his supporting roles. He also often struggles with scene construction and character decisions (Would Jim’s dad really park himself in front of the TV with a beer when his wife gets falsely sent to prison for dealing drugs?). It is the strength of young Affleck that carries this film and captures the sympathy of the viewer. He is a ruined man with deflated dreams but it is his disappointment in how his life was supposed to matter but has yet to, that makes us care. His hesitation to enjoy life out of fear of further discontent is endearing while at the same time tragic because he will never realize his potential while he believes there is none.

After a limited three-month run in theatres in the spring of this year, topping out at 16 screens in North America, LONESOME JIM finds itself on DVD. Buscemi, along with writer James C. Strouse (Jim), provide commentary for the feature. Their camaraderie is the kind of stuff that small independent features inevitably develop when things go well. Things didn’t go too well on the LONESOME JIM shoot as it was dropped from its original production house and picked up by InDigEnt, with its budget dropping from three million dollars to just half a million. Again, just one of those things that bonds the creative team on an independent feature into something resembling a family, if it doesn’t drive them insane first. Family is one of the strongest roots of LONESOME JIM and the commentary reveals just how intimate the script truly is. The family home in the film is in fact the screenwriter’s family home; the family factory is the same one that has always been in his family; even all of his family members that have roles based on them in the film, find themselves in cameo spots throughout. These revelations give LONESOME JIM more heart than is apparent upon first screening.

At one point in the film commentary, Buscemi mentions how shooting LONESOME JIM was much like shooting a home movie. Being in the actual locations, creating characters based on every day people make the film into something of a genuine family portrait. Like a family, LONESOME JIM is far from perfect but it has a comfort that feels like home.

Movie rating – 3

Disc Rating – 3