Lymelife (2008)

This had about the same rating on imdb as The Hangover: 8.1 and 8.3 out of 10, but this one had 1366 votes, and Hangover had 37168. Lymelife drew me in because of its cast: Alec Baldwin (some of my faves: NBC's 30 Rock, The Cooler (2003), Malice (1994), Glengarry Glen Ross (1992), Beetle Juice (1988)), Macauley Culkin's not-so-little brothers Kieran (Igby Goes Down and The Dangerous Life of Altar Boys, both in 2002) and Rory (The Chumscrubber (2005) and he played the 10-year-old Keiran in Igby), Jill Hennessey (68 episodes of Law & Order from 1993-96 and 117 of Crossing Jordan 2001-07), a desperate Cynthia Nixon (a small part in Igby, daughter Alex Tanner in all 10 episodes of the excellent political-fiction miniseries Tanner '88 on HBO, Miranda in all 94 episodes of HBO's Sex & The City as well as the 2008 feature film, and Eleanor Roosevelt in the HBO TV-movie Warm Springs in 2005), Eric's daughter/Julia's niece Emma Roberts (Nancy Drew in 2007), and a very good Timothy Hutton (he broke out in Ordinary People (1980), which is my best example of a movie I liked better than the book; then there were, among others, Taps (1981), The Falcon and the Snowman (1985), Kinsey (2004), which was great, and I liked the admittedly chick-flick-like Last Holiday (2006), which I saw on a plane).

This was the directorial debut for co-writer/editor Derick Martini, and it won him the International Critics' Award (FIPRESCI) at last year's Toronto Film Festival. The movie takes its title from the 1970s-era Lyme disease scare in Long Island, which is when and where the movie is set. No one is happy in this group, but I do not disagree with its being called a comedy/drama. The music, with hits from the 70s plus early Bob Dylan, Frank Sinatra, and others, in addition to the score by brother/co-writer Steven Martini's band The Spaceship Martini, is good.