Lymelife

Movie
German title	Lymelife / Long Island Blues
Original title	Lymelife
Country of production	United States
original language	English
Publishing year	2008
length	91 minutes
Age rating	FSK 12
Rod
Director	Derick Martini
script	Derick Martini , ; Steven Martini
production	Steven Martini , ; Jonathan Cornick , ; Alec Baldwin ; Michele Tayler ; Angela Somerville ; Barbara De Fina
music	Steven Martini
camera	Frank Godwin
cut	Derick Martini , ; Steven Martini , ; Mark Yoshikawa
occupation
	Rory Culkin : Scott Bartlett; Kieran Culkin : Jimmy Bartlett; Alec Baldwin : Mickey Bartlett; Jill Hennessy : Brenda Bartlett; Emma Roberts : Adrianna Bragg; Timothy Hutton : Charlie Bragg; Cynthia Nixon : Melissa Bragg;

Lymelife (German title also Long Island Blues ) is an American drama film directed by Derick Martini and Steven Martini from 2008 about the life of two families in a typical American suburb in 1979.

content

15-year-old Scott Bartlett lives with his family on Long Island. His parents, Brenda and Mickey, are very afraid of Lyme disease , so Scott is only allowed to go outside the front door if it is adequately protected from ticks .

His father builds and sells real estate and has come to a certain degree of prosperity. However, his latest project, the development of an entire residential area, is not going quite as successfully as planned. When he is planning a new house for his family on his own initiative, Scott's parents quarrel. However, there has been a crisis in the married life of the two for a long time.

Scott is secretly in love with Adrianna Bragg, but she sees him more as her little brother and loves other boys. The two get a little closer at a church party, but Adrianna admits that she prefers to date older boys because they are more mature. When Adrianna becomes involved with another boy, Scott makes a friend believe he was intimate with her. However, this only ensures that Adrianna no longer wants to have anything to do with Scott.

Because of his rich father, Scott is bullied and blackmailed at school, whereupon his older brother Jimmy intervenes and beats up the tormentor. Jimmy is in the army and at home with his family on vacation. He portrays himself as a heroic soldier to his family. Later, Jimmy confesses to his brother that he is only a news specialist in the army and does not carry a weapon at all. The army is not his big dream, but for him just a way to escape the hypocritical suburban idyll.

In the forest, Scott meets Mr. Bragg, Adrianna's father, who is doing target practice there. Mr. Bragg has Lyme disease and lost his job. He pretends to be looking for a job for his family, but instead he withdraws more and more into his own world, as his illness is more of a burden for him than he is willing to admit. His wife, Melissa Bragg, works in Scott's father Mickey's real estate office and begins an affair with him. It is only when Adrianna openly points this out to Scott that Scott becomes aware of his family's problems.

Jimmy is very disappointed in him because of his father's affair and tries to confront him, but he doesn't want to hear about it. Brenda seems to accept her husband's affair without complaint. Only after she is openly addressed by Scott about his father's affair does she throw her husband out of the house after a heated argument. Mickey then moves into the new house he built for the family. Later, in a bar, Mickey and Charlie face a confrontation, but this does not lead to a solution between the two.

Due to family problems, Scott becomes increasingly aggressive and beats his old tormentor on the school grounds for no apparent reason, whereupon he is suspended from school for a week. Mickey tries to justify his actions to his son, but Scott cannot forgive his father.

At Scott's confirmation, Scott and Adrianna get closer again after Adrianna has forgiven him. Adrianna admits that although she dated older boys, she is still a virgin. After all, they both sleep together. At the party, the relationship between Mickey and Brenda relaxes a bit, but Brenda does not want to live with her husband in the old family house. When Melissa finds out that her husband has not looked for a new job, but has spent the days in the basement, she packs her bags and moves out. Charlie hardly takes any notice of it, rather he grabs his rifle and leaves the house, presumably to chase after a previously seen, possibly only imaginary stag.

Mickey decides to sell the house he has built for the family as a symbolic act to start a new beginning with his family. Scott takes good note of this as he drives off on the school bus with Adrianna. So he does not see his father being shot by Charlie in front of his house at the end, when Charlie probably wanted to shoot the deer.

Publications

The film was shown in 2008 at the Toronto International Film Festival and was shown in selected US cinemas on April 8, 2009. In Germany, Lymelife was not shown in theaters, but was only released on DVD.

Worldwide, the film grossed around $ 500,000 with an estimated budget of $ 1.5 million (as of July 2009).

Reviews

"Loose satire about a deceptive suburban idyll"

- Cinema

"A thoroughly successful coming-of-age story with a neat plot and a surprising ending."

- filmrecommendation.com

"In this black film comedy by the debut director Derick Martini, after about 20 minutes the viewer can't get rid of the feeling that he has been watching the film for over an hour."

- digitalvd.de

With Metacritic , the film achieved a Metascore of 64%. 63% of the film reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes are positive (as of August 2016).