"Mixed Directions"
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What You Need To Know:
Brilliantly acted, LYMELIFE is funny, sad, unnerving, poignant, and sometimes disgusting. The ending to LYMELIFE has some redemptive moments, but they are overshadowed by abundant foul language, two scenes of depicted sex, an ambiguous final scene, and disturbing scenes of family dysfunction.
Content:
(PaPa, CC, B, AP, LLL, V, SS, NN, AA, DD, MM) Strong mixed pagan worldview with strong pagan elements and overt Christian elements about two dysfunctional families but ultimately with an endorsement of the positive benefits of a good marriage, plus implied attack on suburban American life; 113 obscenities (including many “f” words), 11 strong profanities and seven light profanities; three scenes of fighting between teenagers and between teenage bully and young adult, plus gunshot heard offscreen that leaves it up to viewers to decide what happened; depicted adultery in one scene, depicted fornication between teenagers under covers in one scene and implied self abuse; brief upper female in one scene and upper male nudity in another scene; alcohol use and drunkenness; smoking and marijuana use; and, main characters are in two dysfunctional families involving adultery, much lying, bullying.
More Detail:
LYMELIFE is another story about dysfunctional families in the American suburbs. Though the movie ultimately affirms the value of marriage for both adult parents and their children, it has a mixed pagan viewpoint leading to a lot of rough content.
Set in 1979, the story focuses on a relatively nominal Catholic family living on Long Island in New York. Kieran Culkin plays Scott Bartlett, a 15-year-old teenager in love with the girl next door, 16-year-old Adrianna played by Emma Roberts. Scott cannot tell whether Adrianna is interested in him, but it turns out that Adrianna has given up on Scott for other boys because Scott won’t make a move.
Adrianna’s father, Charlie, has lyme disease, which makes him listless, uninvolved and unemployed. Unknown to her mother, Melissa, Charlie pretends to go into the city looking for work but hides in the basement smoking pot.
Meanwhile, Scott’s military brother, Jimmy, comes home on leave for the holidays. Scott thinks his mother, Brenda, is a little nuts, but he doesn’t know that his father, Mickey, played by Alec Baldwin, is cheating on her with Melissa, Adrianna’s mother. When Scott finds this out, it turns his world upside down.
Brilliantly acted, LYMELIFE is funny, sad, unnerving, poignant, and sometimes disgusting. That’s pretty much like life, especially if you don’t have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Though Scott and his family are Catholic, only his mother seems to still believe in that faith. The ending to LYMELIFE has some redemptive moments, especially when it looks like Mickey and Brenda may be able to repair their broken marriage. Otherwise, however, the movie’s Christian content is overshadowed by abundant foul language, two scenes of depicted sex, an ambiguous final scene, and disturbing scenes of family dysfunction. Included in this negative content is a scene where the two teenagers go to bed together. That scene, and the abundant foul language, is excessive. These immoral elements easily could have been fixed, resulting in a much more redemptive, uplifting drama.
