Lonesome Jim

★ I think Steve Buscemi is a fine actor. In fact, I love him in almost everything he’s done. But if Lonesome Jim is representative of his work as a director, he has wandered into the wrong end of the field. Despite getting a reasonably good performance from Casey Affleck, a perfect complement from Mary Kay Place and good face from Liv Tyler, this movie suffers from a depressing script shot at a pace so lethargic it appears to be walking to an arthouse seeking limited distribution. There also could have been more attention to detail in the editing, which exposed a few gaffes.

I do know people that liked this movie. But I found it just as depressing as a Greek tragedy, but not nearly as complex or thought-provoking. Affleck’s character Jim is so insensitive and selfish that it pained me to watch him. And that’s pretty much the movie, until for some inexplicable reason he starts to round the corner just in time to roll the credits.

Filmed entirely on location in Goshen, Indiana, the movie is at its best portraying Midwestern small-town life. That’s a small consolation.