The only time I seem to trawl through IMDb comments is when I've seen a duff film. I guess I'm looking to find reassurance that it's not just me. For me, then, Lonesome Jim was a duff film packed with unbelievable characters in unbelievable situations which limped on lamely and boringly towards a cop-out hackneyed conclusion. So I check out what other people have to say and feel a bit like Jim, out on a limb, alienated, as page after page of multiple star ratings and plaudits leave me doubting my critical faculties. Yet maybe I should check the settings for the comments presentation, since after a while the gushing dies down and I'm relieved to see appreciations that mirror my own. I feel vindicated. It IS a rubbish film, it DOESN'T hang together and it DOES constitute a wasted evening sitting through it. Praise be to kindred spirits.

Most characters in this film are somewhat neurotic and depressed, yet it is a highly funny comedy; you find yourself feeling for them, yet the film does not resort to sentimentality or clichés. Not everything gets right in the end, though a touch of optimism is present as well; it avoids every cliché about growing up, getting to love life etc. (How I love the basket-ball match scene, a hilarious subversion of the usual cliché.) It's much nicer than that : characterization is very subtle and supported by great performances from everyone. There is not much of a plot, but that's not a problem. So it's a subtle, depressed, hilarious film. Thumbs up for Steve Buscemi.

You can object to the choice to make this film about a so-called depressive. You can object that Jim doesn't just snap out of it. But of all the things you can say about Lonesome Jim, you can't say it is badly made.This film is like a meditation: it totally clears the mind of everything else and allows you to focus on what is there in front of you.The grainy film did not strike me as low quality or cheap. It made the film like watching home movies; there is nothing glamorous about this scene. It was totally in keeping with the theme of muted emotion. The graininess sometimes slows things down so much that the characters appear to be talking through the haze of their dull surroundings, and they are the liveliest things about the situation. It almost transforms film into a cartoon drama by the younger sibling.Is the main character Jim (Casey Affleck) suffering from depression? Well, alright. But that assessment papers over the interesting sources of the emotion stifling: the relationship between son and parents, and how he has subverted his personality with them; and the relationship he has with the rest of his hometown.The whole thing is so real – we especially digest meaning during Jim's driving scenes, inevitably at twilight when the post industrial fading rural landscape is at its most evocative, stirring feelings of profound longing and sadness.(There must be a retrospective of Sensitive Boy flicks somewhere. To my recollection, Ordinary People could be the first in the series, but among the others, and I'm sure there are many, many more than I can think of here, are You Can Count on Me, and Imaginary Heroes. I've also heard that Garden State could be slotted in there, but I haven't seen it.) This is a brilliant film.So why not give it 10 out of 10? Because we do not know yet if it will stand the test of time. Already Ordinary People does not pack the same punch as did 20 odd years ago. Also, these films have a relatively small theme. So though while intense and delicate in emotional depiction, their reach is rather narrow and might not possess any universal themes. They are particularly US-centric. Which is fine, but it precludes them from greatness.

Lonesome Jim is kind of like a romantic dark comedy about a dysfunctional family whose two boys are total losers. Both boys around 30, living at home, with absolutely nothing going for them. I live in the Midwest and I can't name one family like this. I picked it up because I kind of like Buscemi acting humor. Now I realize I need to have a counteracting agent to that humor to make it work. The acting and camera work and editing was fine. The first 15 minutes got you set, and the last 15 minutes helped prevent the film from being totally depressing Jerry Springer trailer trash type of story. The female members of my family were begging me to turn it off, but I prevailed under the premise that there had to be a turning point near the end, and we watched the entire movie. The male family members, as expected, simply walked out after the first 30 minutes.