Movie Review

Lymelife (2009)

EW's GRADE
C+

Details Limited Release: Apr 08, 2009; Rated: R; Length: 95 Minutes; Genre: Drama; With: Alec Baldwin and Kieran Culkin

On the Stoop: Jill Hennessy and Rory Culkin in Lymelife
Image credit: Bruce Birmelin
On the Stoop: Jill Hennessy and Rory Culkin in Lymelife

Nearly three decades after Ordinary People, Timothy Hutton is back for more sadness 
in the 1970s suburbs in Lymelife. In this overworked 
if heartfelt indie, Hutton broods in his 
basement as a distant dad whose vague, unchecked symptoms of debilitating Lyme disease (contracted on tick-infested Long Island) symbolize the vague, unchecked anomie of the era. (Just a guess.) Rory Culkin commands attention, though, as the teen boy next door, negotiating the usual sad-suburbs terrors of first love and tension between his squabbling parents, played by Long Island-bred Alec Baldwin (who also produced) and Jill Hennessy. C+

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Originally posted Apr 08, 2009 Published in issue #1043 Apr 17, 2009 Order article reprints

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