Not sure Lymelife is a film many would have heard of, I certainly hadn't until I decided to scout BBC iPlayer's film collection as they often have hidden gems. This is definitely a gem to me, and if any people who read this blog have seen it then be aware this is right up my street. My own personal film taste ranges from comic book fantasy to mediocre chick flick, I can pretty much stomach them all (except vicious sick horror). Friends at University would class some of my films under the heading "not a lot happens in an American suburb", I own a few of these types including Junebug, The Station Agent, Cookies Fortune, and Fireflies in the Garden. Lymelife I would also put in that same category, but what all my friends failed to realise was that stuff is always bubbling away in these movies, just because nobody blows up doesn't mean there aren't explosions. Of course its all a matter of taste and just to be clear if you have seen The Ice Storm and disliked it, you will not enjoy Lymelife.
So to explain the comparison, both Lymelife and The Ice Storm are set in the Seventies, the latter in 1973 and the former in the non specified later years, we know it is a few years after Lyme disease became prevalent in 1975 and the cause by tick was discovered in 1978. Both are involved with neighbouring families, with the prerequisite adolescents bubbling with hormones on either side, and finally the adulterous parents.
While The Ice Storm was overflowing with sex, scandal, and a wide cast, Lymelife is less so. Rory Caulkin provides our main character, a fifteen year old in love with the girl next door unaware how screwed up his parents marriage is. The Caulkins are a talented family, the middle brother Kieran also stars as believe it or not Scott's (Rory) older brother Jimmy returning from the Army and awaiting orders. The girl next door is the beautiful Emma Roberts, herself dealing with a rather screwed up set of parents, the highly strung Cynthia Nixon and a Lyme disease ridden Timothy Hutton.
And really this is it, its their lives intertwining, Alec Baldwin screwing his sons lives up with his philandering and almost ruining young Scott's chances at romance. Of course like The Ice Storm there is a climactic and violent end, but as with all these films in my lovingly named 'films where not a lot happen' the violence is not of a slasher movie calibre, but it is all the more shocking.
I thoroughly enjoyed the film, it is well acted, I think when you bring siblings in together you get a realism to their interaction, look at the Gyllenhaals in Donnie Darko or Joan and John Cusack in Grosse Pointe Blank. The idea of having Lyme disease as a potential threat to your health casts a horrific shadow across these families, and its one I have never seen examined in film and didn't realise was such a debilitating condition.
Between The Ice Storm and Lymelife I think the former is the superior film because it examines so many aspects of life in the Seventies, however it lacks the focus of having one truly central character as Scott is to Lymelife. What I would recommend to potential viewers is to watch The Ice Storm as although it was made in 1997 it cannot age, as Lymelife (2008) will not age either, because of its retrospective setting. But also to watch it as the cast are amazing, you have everybody from Sigourney Weaver to Elijah Wood showcasing their talents. Then once you have seen it and if you enjoyed it to give Lymelife a try, the cast are also fabulous and its a very very good 'film where not a lot happens in an American suburb'.
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