Welcome to Jim's life. It is a sad, pitiful life, but it is the one the Jim prefers. After all, much of it he brought on himself. Jim is a 27-year-old man who lacks the options other people have. Lonesome Jim starts with the somber, depressed man walking home from a bus stop to his parents' house. At 27, he has hit rock bottom and has come home from a failed career at writing and walking dogs in Manhattan. In Jim's words, he has come home to have a nervous breakdown.
Meeting Jim's family is quite the experience. Jim's mom, Sally is a perky, Donna Reed type who likes baking and caring for her family. Jim, who is somewhat awkward and doesn't seem overly interested in his appearance, is referred to as “Mom's pretty boy”. Jim's father, meanwhile, is a stern and quiet man until mom leaves the room and then he usually has something more to say, despite being a man of few words.
The final member of the family is Tim. Tim is much like Jim except he is the older brother. Tim is in his 30s, divorced, and works for and lives with mom and dad. He coaches basketball for the team his twin daughters are on, but as a testament to Jim and Tim's outlook, the girls (the entire team of girls) haven't scored a basket all season long.
Jim has come home to have a breakdown and resents his brother, who gets to it first. So, while Tim lays in a coma we begin to dissect the family life of Jim and what on earth could make him so glum. We are presented with issues such as premature ejaculation and marijuana laced with crack.
This movie is an unconventional comedy. Lonesome Jim is for all the people in the world that love to laugh at another person's pain and yet feel it's wrong to do so. This makes it socially acceptable to do so and Jim is the perfect person to laugh at. With an outlook like, it's better to accept misery as opposed to trying and failing like everyone else, you cannot help but laugh at him.
Casey Affleck's performance was amazingly plain, just like it was supposed to be. Affleck was hilarious and his performance was compeimented by that of Mary Kay Place (Jim's mom) who stole the show as a motherly force to be reckoned with. It's hard to not like a woman that is that perky. Of course, it is easy to imagine how someone could not handle her being their mother.
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