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Webposted: September 19, 2002
By: Kay Kellam
The dysfunctional family that discovers they function
extremely well...
as a dysfunctional family!
Igby Goes Down is not an easy movie to find words for. It is the tale of a highly dysfunctional family that starts the movie with laughs -- and confusion, and spends the rest of the film trying to help the audience understand what brought them to those first moments.
It is a long journey, but one well worth the effort, as we come back to that opening scene and we finally understand how these people came to be in that opening scene -- and as we see the same people, gathered in the same room for the same reason, our understanding of what is going on has totally changed.
This dysfunctional family is loosely tied by blood bonds that turn out to be just as weak as their attempts to communicate with one another. Whether you take to the title character Igby, whose story this truly is, or his brother (played extremely well by Ryan Philippe) who is never given the same depth and yet because equally understandable by the actors adept use of the material he has been given or their mother Mimi who one has to marvel at. That she managed to keep custody of her children is a bloody miracle!
I was amazed at the number of people who came out of the theater asking one simple question: Has Ryan Philippe been typecast? His characters all seem to have a similar core, whether it is Sebastian from Cruel Intentions, Henry Denton from Gosford Park, or Oliver in Igby Goes Down -- you see the same core and heart to the characters. What Ryan Phillips brings to them is a sparkle in the eye, and an ability to redeem, or at least soften the edges of these characters. In the end, despite the fact this is Igby's story, Oliver was sympathetic, and audience members came out feeling just as deeply for him as they did for Igby.
Kieran Culkin (younger brother of Macaulay) shines bright as Igby. He appears to have the maturity and understanding of just how complex and challenging life can be and brings all that and so much more to Igby.
At the very end of the movie several things are shown but not talked about or explained. It seems as though Igby and Oliver understand where their life has been taking them -- and they embrace the father figure they have always looked up to and cared for perhaps more than even they ever realized. It is an appropriate ending to a well crafted film.
(C) Kay Kellam, 2001 for PopArtsPlace.com
Prior to having her first novel, A
Life to Di For, published author Kay
Kellam enjoyed a variety of jobs that helped to shape her outlook on the
world, and her profession. more...
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