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September 13, 2002
Igby Goes Down
(out of four)
Imagine if Royal Tenenbaum met Mimi Slocumb (the matriarch in Igby Goes Down) -- the kids they might have! In some ways, the Slocumbs and the Tenenbaums aren't so different. In both families, children orbit their disconnected parents like satellites searching for any sign of affectionate life. As played by Susan Sarandon, Mimi's not so much a mother as a manager, bossing her children, Igby (Kieran Culkin) and Ollie (Ryan Phillippe), from her icy perch. In the opening scene of Igby Goes Down, Igby and Ollie patiently wait for a lethal cocktail to put their mother out of their misery. When the drugs don't take hold, they switch to Plan B, cinching a plastic bag over Mimi's head until she finally stops breathing.
You're expected to laugh at the scene, which sets the movie on awkward footing. It's a black comedy, but it's not that kind of black comedy. Like The Royal Tenenbaums, Burr Steers's directorial debut recognizes the absurdity of New York's most privileged families, where idle parents beget stir-crazy children. But Igby goes one step further and recognizes the characters as real people. We see the world from Igby's point of view, and suddenly it seems too big.
Wrapped in a Hogwarts scarf, Igby's a teenage firecracker bursting from his well-bred britches. According to his own mother, Igby's birth was an act of aggression. "Why should his life be any different?" Igby's too impatient for school -- he doesn't care to learn, he wants to experience -- so he escapes into the city, where he shacks up with his godfather's mistress (Amanda Peet). Igby fears nothing more than becoming his parents and inheriting the mistakes of the adults around him.
As in Ghost World and L.I.E., two of last year's best films, our headstrong young hero discovers the path to his own identity, but not before gorging himself on other possibilities. Yes, Igby goes down, but the movie rises above its peers. It stands apart by virtue of those subtle insights Steers so cunningly drops along the way. This is how New York's Old Money kiddos must look beyond the pink walls and confectionery cuteness of Wes Anderson's dollhouse world. The view isn't necessarily better from here, but there's certainly more to see.
[as featured on Moviefone.com]
Posted by Peter Debruge on