l_rawjalaurence Described in one publicity tag as "a dark comedy," I am not sure whether Derek Martini's intense little film lives up to that description. Set in Long Island, it focuses on a teenage protagonist Scott (Rory Culkin), who not only learns something about his family, but acquires new knowledge about those closest to him, especially his childhood friend Adrianna (Emma Roberts), whom he has known ever since he was eight years old.Lyme's Disease is transmitted to human beings through infected blacklegged ticks. Typical symptoms include fever, headaches and skin rash. In Martini's film the disease functions as a kind of metaphor for the disease affecting everyone around Scott; his father Mickey (Alec Baldwin) conducts a clandestine affair with Adrianna's mother Melissa (Cynthia Nixon), while his mother appears not to notice; his brother Jimmy (Kieran Culkin) has gone off to military service as a means of escaping from his father; while Adrianna appears to be going out with older boys at his high school. In this capitalist-oriented, meritocratic world, where Mickey believes that becoming a millionaire is a sign of 'success,' no one appears particularly interested in anyone around them.Melissa's husband Charlie (Timothy Hutton) actually suffers from the disease, but nonetheless lives a life as false as anyone else's. While pretending to go to the city each day to find a job, he actually incarcerates himself away in the bowels of his home doing drawings.Set in the late Seventies, LYMELIFE offers an interesting critique of American lifestyles at that time; the obsession with money, masculinity and self-assertion that creates an alienated world. There are some highly suggestive groupings: Scott and Adrianna are shown standing on either side of a railway line; they cannot seem to cross the line to meet together, but instead wait for a train to come past, remarking as they do so that it's always possible to hear a train anywhere in Long Island. At the end of the film, they are shown sitting together in a school bus; they do not speak for a long time, until Adrianna relents and takes Scott's hand. At least the youngsters are making tentative steps to create a less alienating world.Sometimes the film makes use of rather obvious symbolism to prove its point: a family row is accompanied by the sound of Sinatra singing a love-song on the soundtrack; while there are several point of view shots of Charlie looking out through a barred upper window at an (imaginary) deer grazing immediately in front of his house. Yet the action as a whole is redeemed by two strong central characterizations: Rory Culkin is especially good as the teenager pretending to be a strongman as he stands in front of the mirror, while Roberts proves herself to be a fundamentally generous soul in a sequence immediately following Scott's confirmation ceremony, when she swallows her pride and agrees to be his friend once more.

James Hitchcock I can only presume that the title "Lymelife" is a contrived pun on the word "limelight" and on the fact that an outbreak of Lyme disease plays a part in the plot. The film is a "coming-of-age" drama set on the Long Island of 1979. (It is sometimes described as a "comedy", although there was little about it which struck me as comic). The main character is fifteen-year-old Scott Bartlett, and the film charts the tangled web of relationships between the Bartletts and their neighbours the Braggs. Essentially, Scott's mother Brenda is having an affair with next-door-neighbour Charlie Bragg, while his father Mickey is having an affair with Charlie's wife Melissa. Meanwhile, Scott is dating the Braggs' daughter Adrianna. There should really be something in Leviticus to cover this situation. ("Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of the woman whose father has uncovered thy mother's nakedness and whose mother has uncovered thy father's nakedness……").Youth can be a time of joy, excitement and enthusiasm, but the film-makers, the brothers Derick and Steven Martini, like many makers of similar dramas, seem less interested in these aspects of life than in hormonally-driven teenage angst. The film is said to be autobiographical, but as the Martinis would only have been four and one years old in 1979 they presumably projected their own teenage experiences backward in time from the early nineties to the late seventies. Part of the problem lies with Rory Culkin, younger brother of Macaulay, as Scott, who seems to be perpetually shrouded in gloom and misery. (Another Culkin brother, Kieran, also appears as Scott's older brother Jimmy). It doesn't help that Culkin was actually twenty when the film was made, five years older than the character he portrays. The best of the adults is probably Alec Baldwin as Mickey, but even he cannot arouse much interest.Independently produced "coming-of-age" dramas are not all bad- indeed, there have been some excellent examples. For every "Ordinary People" or "Gregory's Girl", however, there are several dreary sagas, and it is into this latter category that "Lymelife" falls. (Timothy Hutton, the star of "Ordinary People", appears here as Charlie). The film seems to have been made primarily for connoisseurs of suburban misery. 4/10

niamh-94 I can honestly say, that this is a fantastic film, with some excellent performances by the main cast, in particular the Culkins, Baldwin,Hutton and Nixon. The story is a simple but beautifully written tale of love, divorce, war and hope in America at time of political and economic change. Admittedly, this was never going to be a box office hit, or the top of the list for nominations, but it is an honest, heart felt film and I think it is very under-rated, probably because isn't very well known. I saw it late one night I couldn't sleep and I was glad, for the first time in my life, that I hadn't been able to drift off, otherwise, I would have missed this gem.If you ever get the opportunity to watch the film do so. You won't regret it.

Playbahnosh ...but that does not necessarily mean Lymelife is bad. The movie is about dysfunctional, broken families and relationships, and I (and I bet many others who watched the movie) also come from a dysfunctional, broken family and had many bad relationships. The fact, that this movie was capable of building on that and making me feel even worse is something to celebrate. Most movies doesn't even come close to inciting any emotion whatsoever, but Lymelife did. Sure, it made me feel miserable, but that just goes to show this movie had what it takes to reach it's audience. That's great.Aside from that, the movie itself is pretty average, with average actors, screenplay and story. For those who doesn't understand it, it could be dull and meaningless. But for those who did live through approximately the same s__t that's in Lymelife, they might just go home with a strange feeling...