'Igby Goes Down' is loaded with characters without much to recommend them. Not that anyone needs to be perpetually perky, but the only sarcastic gesture missing from "Igby Goes Down" is the long-cadenced applause accompanied by the look of ennui. This is where the audience comes in.
Igby (Kieran Culkin) is about to make the leap from adolescence to the real world and since there's no evidence that he's ever even visited, there's no reason to expect a bright future. No, not another coming of age' serio-comic teen angst ridden screenplay! At least there's worthwhile talent to entertain us along the way.
Igby has a cast of veterans we've enjoyed in other films. Susan Sarandon and Jeff Goldblum deserve each other though we see little of them on-screen together. Haven't we seen enough of Ms. Sarandon lately? She is more likely to die of overexposure than of anything scripted in "Moonlight Mile," "The Banger Sisters " or "Igby." Claire Danes plays `a vegetarian for purely moral reasons' who is partial to ice cream sundaes, though there's no evidence that she wears them. As a Bennington student taking a semester off, she has perfected an innocent/impatient air that is wonderful to watch.
Jeff Goldblum portrays a one-dimensional capitalist with such panache that he becomes a pitiable. And then there's Igby, a young man who hasn't met a prep school he didn't dislike. We all know that a traditional education isn't for everyone and there are alternatives to consider but Mimi (Sarandon) was so intent on sending Igby to an eastern prep school that she was willing to sacrifice all to complete her mission... or die trying.
Here are characters that deserved our disdain more than our sympathy, yet they are likeable. Igby is a spoiled conniver and pathological liar. His brother Oliver (Ryan Phillipe) is an aloof twit who lacks the decency to mentor a younger brother in need. Sarandon is a bitchy manipulator who has it her way then makes you feel bad about it. These characters are real; believable people like those we know, associate and (yikes) love. Rather than love or hate "Igby," perhaps we can identify with it. And that's kind of sad.
Igby (Kieran Culkin) is about to make the leap from adolescence to the real world and since there's no evidence that he's ever even visited, there's no reason to expect a bright future. No, not another coming of age' serio-comic teen angst ridden screenplay! At least there's worthwhile talent to entertain us along the way.
Igby has a cast of veterans we've enjoyed in other films. Susan Sarandon and Jeff Goldblum deserve each other though we see little of them on-screen together. Haven't we seen enough of Ms. Sarandon lately? She is more likely to die of overexposure than of anything scripted in "Moonlight Mile," "The Banger Sisters " or "Igby." Claire Danes plays `a vegetarian for purely moral reasons' who is partial to ice cream sundaes, though there's no evidence that she wears them. As a Bennington student taking a semester off, she has perfected an innocent/impatient air that is wonderful to watch.
Jeff Goldblum portrays a one-dimensional capitalist with such panache that he becomes a pitiable. And then there's Igby, a young man who hasn't met a prep school he didn't dislike. We all know that a traditional education isn't for everyone and there are alternatives to consider but Mimi (Sarandon) was so intent on sending Igby to an eastern prep school that she was willing to sacrifice all to complete her mission... or die trying.
Here are characters that deserved our disdain more than our sympathy, yet they are likeable. Igby is a spoiled conniver and pathological liar. His brother Oliver (Ryan Phillipe) is an aloof twit who lacks the decency to mentor a younger brother in need. Sarandon is a bitchy manipulator who has it her way then makes you feel bad about it. These characters are real; believable people like those we know, associate and (yikes) love. Rather than love or hate "Igby," perhaps we can identify with it. And that's kind of sad.