The Catcher in the Rye” just won’t go away. No matter how reclusive J.D. Salinger remains, or how resolutely he refuses to allow films to be made of his books, adaptations of various aspects of his writing regularly find their way to the big screen in such works as “The Royal Tenenbaums” (a meditation on the Glass family saga) and “The Good Girl,” which features Jake Gyllenhaal as a Texas teen who renames himself Holden after Salinger’s “Catcher” protagonist.
While it’s odd that Salinger’s legal team has remained silent as such work disseminates nationwide, film-lovers are benefited by the oversight. The latest in this pantheon of Salinger-derived movies is “Igby Goes Down,” a disarming and funny movie written and directed by newcomer Burr Steers.
Steers tells the story of Igby Slocumb (an all-grown-up Kieran Culkin and a still-tiny Rory Culkin in a series of flashbacks), a super-rich kid with a troubled family: pill-popping mom Mimi (Susan Sarandon, in perhaps her best lush role yet), Young Republican older brother Oliver (Ryan Phillippe) and schizophrenic father Jason (Bill Pullman), a powerful businessman before his breakdown. As the title hints, Igby’s life goes downhill from the film’s beginning, as he gets kicked out of school after school and destroys relationships with the few who can tolerate him.
After Mimi ships him to military school following his expulsion from yet another prep school, Igby starts work for his industrialist godfather D.H. Baines (Jeff Goldblum), who, in the words of Oliver, “is a parody of a happy, content person.”
Goldblum plays D.H. in just the right awkward, semi-robotic way. His performance stands out in a field of excellent supporting performances, including those of Amanda Peet as D.H.’s mistress, Jared Harris as a pretentious performance artist, and Claire Danes as Sookie Sapperstein, who attempts to save Igby.
Steers throws all these characters in a pot, adds the volatile Igby, and the result is nothing short of stunning. Even Peet and Pullman, a pair of actors I usually have no patience for, delivered exciting, tense performances.
Most everything is just right about “Igby.” The dialogue is quick, the acting outstanding, the plot compelling. This much, however, is certain: It wouldn’t work without Kieran Culkin.
Culkin, until now known best as Fuller in the “Home Alone” series, here stakes his claim as one of the finest actors in the country younger than 20. Every line he delivers is just glib enough, just maddening enough, just despairing enough, and so well-timed that even the most stilted dialogue feels natural.
Is “Igby” the best movie this year?
Probably not.
It suffered a bit on second viewing, and the release schedule for the rest of the year is loaded with the movies that will snag all the Oscar nominations. Still, it shouldn’t be overlooked because it doesn’t quite stand with the tall trees. It’s an emotional, fun, desolate movie that is charming enough that its flaws are easy to gloss over.
And Kieran Culkin, man. Somebody cast this kid again. nyou
