"I call her Mimi because 'Heinous One' is a bit cumbersome," explains 17-year-old Igby (Kieron Culkin) of his ruinously self-absorbed mother (Susan Sarandon), whose death bookends this pungent comedy of unhappiness.
Igby's schizophrenic dad (Bill Pullman) has long since been confined to a "home for the befuddled". His university-student brother (Ryan Phillippe) aspires to earn a fortune on Wall Street. And the disillusioned Igby has been thrown out of countless prep schools and, most recently, a military academy.
Borrowing his mum's credit card, Igby holes up in New York, crashing at the pied-Ã -terre of his godfather D.H. (Jeff Goldblum), along with the latter's choreographer mistress (Amanda Peet). Hanging out with a Jewish girl Sookie Sapperstein (Claire Danes) helps fill the time for Igby, until his brother becomes his romantic rival...
The memorably titled "Igby Goes Down" brings to mind those oft-quoted lines of Philip Larkin's - "They f*** you up, your Mum and Dad/They may not mean to, but they do". The material affluence of these characters can't hide their acute emotional dysfunctionality, and their reliance on various types of medication to assuage their moods.
Shrewdly played by Culkin, Igby seems like a 21st century version of J.D. Salinger's Holden Caulfield, wandering around New York City and railing against the phoniness of the adult world.
Writer-director Burr Steers shows a welcome ability at writing acidly amusing dialogue - "If heaven is such a wonderful place," Igby enquires, "then why is being crucified such a big f* sacrifice?"
But whilst Steers sidesteps the clichés that befall so many coming-of-age pictures by withholding any simplistic epiphanies from his story, he never quite makes us feel for his creations, despite the acting talent at his disposal.
Visually less accomplished than Wes Anderson's "The Royal Tenenbaums" (to which this has been compared thematically), "Igby Goes Down" is caustically entertaining without achieving a tragic dimension.
Igby Goes Down (2003)
