I can't wait for my next three-Martini film! If Lymelife can be done in less than a month, let's have at least two more before year's endthe last positioned for awards season. Yes, I worry this remarkable film will be unheralded and forgotten in eight months. I can visualize every member of this excellent cast reading the script and beginning to drool. All this tight, little character-driven story needed was a cast that knew whereof it spoke and a director who could give that cast's instincts and improvisational abilities free rein. Obviously, the Martini brothers with a cathartic, autobiographical exercise in familial dysfunction said, "Hey, the Culkins will know where we're coming from!" And do they ever! The scenes between the brothers are heartbreaking in their awareness of fraternal love and filial disillusionment.
The sexual initiation scenes are tender, funny and soooo real. The floundering, faulty adults, right on the nose! This is Timothy Hutton's best work since Ordinary People.
The 1979 setting is subtly established by the scrupulously selected music and the vehicles of the time. The only effort to tie in current events in this post-Viet Nam war-weary era is an almost subliminal reference to the takeover of the American embassy in Tehran. And this is all so right, because the characters and relationships, which is what we're here for, are timeless.
The symbolismright up to the real estate baron bearing the cross of a For Sale signhits just the right note. if you have a chance to see this film, go.
