Igby Goes Down Movie Review:

Igby Goes Down is a film loosely based on the character of Holden Caulfield from the novel The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salienger. Igby is an angry, rebellious 17-year old adolescent that discovers the fakeness and evil of the world quickly. His cynical and rich mother (Sarandon) has sent him to one great high school after another, which Igby usually runs away from or he gets kicked out. His journey through New York in the film leads him to encounters with all the unique characters of his life. His older brother, Oliver (Phillippe), is a successful liberal college student. D.H. (Goldblum) is his real-estate owning godfather that is more than a snake than anyone knows. D.H.'s mistress is the drug-addicted Rachel (Peet), and then there is Sookie (Danes), who is an older college student that understands the level of life that Igby is going through.

The ideas of a character like Caulfield from Salienger's novel is intriguing to me, but overall I wasn't overwhelm by this film. Igby himself is full of so much anger, that I started questioning the film as to what other harsh thing can he do or say, as well as what else can go bad for him. It was almost as if the film went overboard with its points of sex, cheating, drugs, death, and cruelties. In which, Igby thinks in the ways of Caulfield, except this film is of today's generation of adolescents.

First time writer-director Burr Steers doesn't officially base his film or script off of The Catcher in the Rye, but it is probably inspired by it someway. The script's strength is of course its characters. Igby is a character that I believe many will personally like, he is an amusing little brat, and it is his eyes that the story is told through. The supporting characters are the ones of the film I liked the most. Igby's cynical and perfectionist mom is a standout, but the two father figures are the best structured in the script outside of Igby. Igby's rich and super nice godfather D.H. is the character with the most hidden fakeness in the story. Through brief flashbacks, Igby's schizophrenic father is presented, in which he is still a loving father no matter that he is ill. The strongest scenes in the film in my opinion are the ones that include Igby's father. There is a very powerful moment in the film, where a young Igby witnesses his father's emotional breakdown. Though the script has good characters, the overall story and characters' actions became at times tiring. I was almost asking myself, which character is going to be crueler this time? How much more can go wrong? Steers' direction isn't great by any means, in fact there were a lot of moments were I was questioning as to what he is doing or trying to capture in some scenes. However, in his defense, Steers does an effective job of capturing the hidden emotion of the film, even though I questioned some of his decisions.

Kieran Culkin takes on the title role of the angry Igby. I will not say that he doesn't have respectable acting skills, he is good. However, throughout the film, I found him to be overdoing the role, but the last twenty minutes of the film he is striking. Ryan Phillippe is an actor I have not cared for throughout the years, with Oliver he does what is needed for the role of the Igby's snob brother. Claire Danes emerges back onto the screen with her straightforward and genuine performance, as Igby's love interest Sookie. The great Susan Sarandon steals every scene that she is in as Igby's mother. Jeff Goldblum delivers one of his best performances as Igby's encouraging but slithering godfather. Goldblum's Independence Day (1996) co-star Bill Pullman is also terrific in his small role as Igby's schizophrenic father.

Igby Goes Down is a film that has good characters and originality. However, I just found a lot of the film going overboard with its issues and disturbance. It might be just me, but I found the film watchable, not hooked into it.

Report Card Grade: C

10/13/02
Copyright

Joseph C. Tucker

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