Themes: Eccentric Families, Dysfunctional Families, Mothers and Sons
Main Cast: Kieran Culkin, Susan Sarandon, Jeff Goldblum, Claire Danes, Ryan Phillippe, Bill Pullman, Amanda Peet
Release Year: 2002
Country: US
Run Time: 104 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
The cynical son of an upper-class New York family bedeviled by booze, pills and mental illness strikes out on his own in this caustic, darkly comic drama. Igby Slocomb (Kieran Culkin) and his older brother, Oliver (Ryan Phillippe), are are in the process of killing their mother, Mimi (Susan Sarandon). Flashbacks delineate Igby's troubled childhood: Speed-freak Mimi and her depressed husband, Jason (Bill Pullman), snipe at each other endlessly until Jason attempts suicide before Igby's very eyes and takes up residence in a mental hospital. Igby grows into a rebellious youth, gets kicked out of several boarding schools and ends up in a hellish military academy. After one failed escape attempt, he heads to New York City and hides out in the apartment of Rachel (Amanda Peet), the heroin-addled mistress of his godfather, D.H. (Jeff Goldblum). Oliver locates the young scoundrel and informs him that Mimi is suffering from cancer. Unperturbed, Igby continues his slacker existence -- and his romance with Sookie (Claire Danes), a hipper-than-thou undergraduate who finds herself torn between Igby and Oliver. As Igby gets drawn further into the mind games and hypocrisy of the adult world, his already jaded outlook grows even darker. He takes to dealing smack and hanging out with a cross-dressing performance "artist" (Jared Harris). Ultimately, though, Mimi's impending death draws him back into the family fold for unexpected revelations and realizations. Written and directed by first-time filmmaker Burr Steers, Igby Goes Down features Rory Culkin, Kieran's brother, as the young Igby. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
Review
Although it followed Tadpole and The Good Girl in 2002's "Catcher in the Rye" revival, this urgently cynical picture is a far cry from Gary Winick's sweet fable or Miguel Arteta's tragicomic treatise on good intentions. Playing the rebel without a cause for neither melancholy warmth nor laughs, Kieran Culkin invests his bratty character with a black heart and an air of indifference, both of which he retains even when the credits roll; if this isn't a star-making performance, something's wrong. Meanwhile, a cast as varied in age as it is in reputation helps delineate the ugly truths that shape Igby's outlook. Thus far in his career, Ryan Phillippe has been convincing only when playing toffee-nosed connivers, and here, once again, he proves that typecasting can be a good thing. Meanwhile, Amanda Peet continues to display the deliciously nasty edge that made her role in Changing Lanes such a surprising pleasure. As Sookie, the conflicted love interest, Claire Danes overcomes a series of career missteps to remind us why she mattered in the first place. Meanwhile, old pros Jeff Goldblum and Susan Sarandon navigate their Upper West Side world with icy authority and deadpan comic timing. Confident first-time writer/director Burr Steers, who has acted in films by Quentin Tarantino and Whit Stillman, shows a clearer affinity for the latter director's well-heeled angst, but he never treats his walking-wounded characters with flip humor or contempt. Elegantly acted, impeccably written and stylishly filmed, Igby Goes Down will prove unworthy only for audiences who require an uplifting emotional arc in even the most soul-weary story. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
Jared Harris - Russel; Rory Culkin - Young Igby; Kathleen Gati - Ida; Cassidy Ladden - Hockey Player; David Arrow - Waiter; Gannon Forrester - Little Cadet; Erin Fritch - Hockey Player; Amber Gross - Girl; Dean Nolen; Bill Irwin - Lt. Smith; Cynthia Nixon - Mrs. Piggee; Daniel Tamberelli - Turtle; Celia Weston - Bunny; Nicholas Wyman - Suit; Eric Bogosian - Mr. Nice Guy; Glenn Fitzgerald - Surfer; Reg Rogers - Therapist; Jim Gaffigan - Hotel Manager; Ronobir Lahiri - Intern; Arnie Burton - Front Desk Clerk; Elizabeth Jagger - Lisa Fiedler; Michael Formica Jones - Peeka; Peter Tambakis - 13-Year-Old Oliver
Credit
Roswell Hamrick - Art Director, Richard Hicks - Casting, Ronnie Yeskel - Casting, Thom "Coach" Ehle - Consultant/advisor, Miggel - Co-producer, Sarah Edwards - Costume Designer, Jonathan Starch - First Assistant Director, Burr Steers - Director, William M. Anderson - Editor, Fran Lucci - Executive Producer, Lee Solomon - Executive Producer, Helen Beadleston - Executive Producer, Rainer Virnich - Executive Producer, David Rubin - Executive Producer, Quentin Harris - Hair Styles, Tom Yeager - Location Manager, Trish Hofmann - Line Producer, Uwe Fahrenkrog Peterson - Composer (Music Score), Nic Harcourt - Musical Direction/Supervision, Chaim Kantor - Camera Operator, David Norris - Camera Operator, Kevin Thompson - Production Designer, Wedigo von Schultzendorff - Cinematographer, Marco Weber - Producer, Lisa Tornell - Producer, Jennifer Alex - Set Designer, Gary J. Coppola - Sound/Sound Designer, Michael Mullane - Sound/Sound Designer, Tim Gallin - Stunts, Jodi Michelle Pynn - Stunts, Janet Paparazzo - Stunts, Danny Aiello III - Stunts Coordinator, Trish Hofmann - Unit Production Manager, Burr Steers - Screenwriter, Anna Novick - Production Assistant, Mark Mistretta - Production Assistant, Michael Kamper - Sound Effects Editor, Eddie Michaels - Unit Publicist, George "Jeb" Byers - First Assistant Camera, Lee Kazista - First Assistant Camera, Michael Proscia - Gaffer, Tom Kerwick - Key Grip, Lori Eschler Frystak - Music Editor, City of Prague Philharmonic - Musical Performer, Peter Sabat - Production Coordinator, Jamie H. Zelermyer - Production Supervisor, Michael Meador - Second Assistant Director, Frederick Howard - Supervising Sound Editor, Heath Jacob Baldwin - Assistant Production Coordinator, Susan Cahill - Assistant Sound Editor, William M. Weberg - Best Boy Grip, Thom Bumblauskas - Construction Coordinator, Michael Gallart - Electrician, Chad Mochrie - First Assistant Editor, Eric Shusterman - First Assistant Editor, Ken Dufva - Foley Artist, S. Diane Marshall - Foley Artist, Martin L. Church - Foley Artist, Tim Boggs - ADR Supervisor, Marin Church - Foley Mixer, Billy Hines - Generator Operator, Eric Dean - Production Secretary, Dickens Whitley - Production Secretary, William Sarokin - Production Sound Mixer, Tim Boggs - Supervising ADR Editor, Leann Murphy - Art Department Coordinator
Kieran Culkin plays Jason "Igby" Slocumb, a misanthropic 17-year-old boy, rebelling against the oppressive world of his strict East Coast "old money" family. His schizophrenic father Jason (Bill Pullman) has been committed to an institution; Igby fears he will eventually suffer a mental breakdown like his father. His mother Mimi (Susan Sarandon) is self-absorbed and distant. Igby mockingly describes his ambitious older brother Ollie (Ryan Phillippe) as a fascist or alternatively a Young Republican, and that he studies Neo-Fascism (Economics) at Columbia University.
Igby figures there must be a better life out there, and he sets out to find it, rebelling against his family at every opportunity. After happily flunking out of several prep schools, he ends up in a brutal military academy where he gets beaten by his fellow students. After escaping and spending time in a Chicago hotel courtesy of his mother's credit card Igby is sent to New York for the summer to his godfather D.H. Banes (Jeff Goldblum). While working construction for D.H. he first encounters Rachel (Amanda Peet), his godfather's heroin-addicted trophy mistress. Rather than return to school, he escapes into the bohemian underworld of Manhattan, hiding out with Rachel and her friend Russel (Jared Harris). He hooks up with terminally bored, part-time lover Sookie (Claire Danes), only for her to later leave him for Ollie.
Despite seeming cold and distant, Mimi is not unaffected by her rebellious son. She describes Igby's conception as an act of malice and it shouldn't be a surprise that his life follows the same course. His name is explained as a family in-joke. As a child he would blame his Digby toy bear for things he had done, mispronouncing it as "Igby". In order to get him to take responsibility for his actions his family would call him Igby whenever he lied.
Igby is informed by D.H. his mother Mimi is dying from cancer and so he returns to see her. She has arranged to commit suicide with help from Ollie, who sedates her and suffocates her with a plastic bag. Before she dies, Mimi makes a final revelation, casually inquiring of Igby, "I take it you know that D.H. is your father?" The film ends with Igby leaving for California, in an attempt to finally make a clean break by getting 3000 miles away from his family.
Igby Goes Down received a positive critical reaction, with an overall rating of 76% on Rotten Tomatoes and a rating of 72% favorable on Metacritic. Critics have compared aspects of the story to J.D. Salinger's novel Catcher in the Rye.[2][3] Film critic Roger Ebert gave the film a positive review and a grade of three and a half stars out of four.[4]
