Lonesome Jim
Metascore
54 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 25 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 10 out of 25
  2. Mixed: 15 out of 25
  3. Negative: 0 out of 25
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  1. Rolling Stone
    Reviewed by: Peter Travers
    75
    Buscemi does not act in Lonesome Jim, but his sly humor and keen eye for nuance resonate in every frame. I can't recall having a better time at a movie about depression.
  2. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    75
    In sad-sack movies there is often a helpful woman around to help the despairing heroes. In "Garden State," it was Natalie Portman; in "Elizabethtown," Kirsten Dunst. Both were salvation angels, but Tyler has a gentle approach to this kind of role that is perfect for the tone of Lonesome Jim.
  3. Premiere
    Reviewed by: Jessica Letkemann
    75
    With a cast of well-chosen actors, a good script, and an eye for making ordinary suburban scenes visually heartbreaking, director Steve Buscemi's small story of failure, depression-and ultimately, love-in one Indiana town rings painfully true-to-life.
  4. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Duane Byrge
    70
    Under Buscemi's overall smart direction, the acting is terrific.
  5. Film Threat
    Reviewed by: Don R. Lewis
    70
    Affleck is dead on as the hapless Jim but the film is nearly stolen from him by Mark Boone Jr. who plays Jim's drug induced Uncle Evil. Kevin Corrigan is also great as Jim's brother Tim.
  6. Dallas Observer
    Reviewed by: Melissa Levine
    70
    Bleak, minimal, bone-dry and hilarious, it creates a rich and layered world from deft strokes of dialogue and action.
  7. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Jan Stuart
    70
    If Lonesome Jim feels like it's perpetually on the verge of evaporating, Buscemi brings to the material the boundless empathy for misfits and screw-ups he displayed in "Trees Lounge."
  8. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Michael Wilmington
    63
    As a director, Buscemi is drier than he is as a performer: more quietly funny, less intense and sometimes weirdly compassionate.
  9. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Maitland McDonagh
    63
    Affleck's gloomy, one-note performance exacerbates the problem, but the stellar supporting cast helps compensate.
  10. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Ty Burr
    63
    Humor in 'Jim' is a little too dry.
  11. Variety
    Reviewed by: Dennis Harvey
    60
    There's a slightness to the mildly eccentric material here that leaves the whole enterprise in danger of fluttering away.
  12. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Stephen Hunter
    60
    The script is adroit: It doesn't force the humor, and it steadily keeps track of Jim's growing maturity.
  13. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: Peter Rainer
    58
    Mostly a snooze. Maybe if Buscemi himself had starred in it things would have turned out better.
  14. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: Shawn Levy
    58
    Buscemi shoots with a cloudy, melancholic air that suits the material and does nothing to prettify the setting. But you can't sense any of the surprising energy or subversive wit that characterizes his best performances.
  15. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Jack Mathews
    50
    Buscemi's latest, Lonesome Jim, written by James C. Strouse, asks you to spend 91 minutes with a 30-year-old slacker and would-be writer who has the DNA of a sloth. "Slowsome Jim" is more like it.
  16. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Kyle Smith
    50
    One of those indie excursions to Loserville that lasts an hour and a half but feels longer than "Roots."
  17. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Ruthe Stein
    50
    Well-intentioned but lifeless.
  18. The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    Reviewed by: Liam Lacey
    50
    The narrative of Lonesome Jim pokes about aimlessly, trying to mine nuggets of amusement.
  19. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    Reviewed by: Sean Axmaker
    50
    It doesn't leave you much to hold on to in a comedy about apathy that can't even muster the energy to care.
  20. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Michael Atkinson
    50
    Lonesome Jim has the import of a deliberately squelched sitcom, or a home movie that's poisoned by unhappiness but shown anyway for stray laughs.
  21. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: J.R. Jones
    50
    At one point screenwriter James C. Strouse name-checks the brilliant Richard Yates, whose fiction similiarly perches between grim humor and utter despair, but the movie's hip detachment is a far cry from the unruly passions of Yates's chronic losers.
  22. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Keith Phipps
    50
    It finds some fine comedic moments when it stops focusing on Affleck's never-ending angst and starts exploring small-town oddness.
  23. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Lisa Schwarzbaum
    42
    Buscemi is stymied here by the inertia of his material.
  24. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: Chuck Wilson
    40
    First-time screenwriter James C. Strouse (in whose hometown the film was shot) provides so few clues to the source of Jim's malaise, or that of his entire sad-sack family, that the movie remains rudderless and not the least bit believable.
  25. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Stephen Holden
    40
    Mr. Buscemi wrote and starred in the small gem of a movie ("Trees Lounge"), which had more psychological nuance than this emotionally cauterized slice of minimalist malaise.

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
7.0 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 9 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 4
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 4
  3. Negative: 0 out of 4
  1. ChadShiira
    8
    [***SPOILERS***] Signposts of a dysfunctional family point to Sally(Mary Kay Place) in the opening faux-happy scenes of "Lonesome Jim". When Jim (Casey Affleck) returns to the fold after an apparently long hiatus, she repeatedly refers to herself in the third person, as both a grandmother and mother. The latter sounds a little creepy because her sons (& Tim) are fully grown men, but her maternal overkill enacts as a sort of wish-fulfillment, an extension of her do-over, that she and her husband (Seymour Cassel) enjoy with their two grandchildren. At the outset of "Lonesome Jim", we hear her yearning for redemption in sentences that begin, "Let mother..." Obviously something went hideously wrong, because her two boys are back home; both depressed, both leeched of any optimism that something good will happen in their lives. Yes, "Lonesome Jim" is a blame-mom-and-dad-for-all-your-bull**** sort of film. And miraculously, it's not at all exasperating, thanks to the intervention of a dry, but uncannily plausible array of humorous situations. "Lonesome Jim" delivers some big laughs from the most subdued line deliveries. It has a very shrewd screenplay. "Lonesome Jim" is at its most brilliant when somebody finally tells Jim to shut up, which doesn't only address the situation at hand, but also for the unforgivable thing he says to Sally (mom) earlier in the film.… Full Review »
  2. NostrilR.
    10
    funny poignant excellent Affleck is superb Buscemi does an excellent job as director.
  3. RonO.
    9
    To anyone who has really struggled with depression, this film softly resonates. To all others, the film will return proportionally to the viewer's willingness to invest. Those who pan the film are likely unaware of the pervasivenss and depth of depression in modern society. And that is sad for them . This film, in it's simple way, is simply true to life, and well worth the time.… Full Review »
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