This is the movie that proves that Macaulay Culkin isn’t and wasn’t the best Culkin actor. Kieran Culkin, now 20 years old, is spot on as the iconoclastic Jason “Igby ” Slocumb, Jr., wild child in a very odd family. Think Malcolm in the Middle in which everyone, including Malcolm, is a bit wacky. No, wait, calling the Slocumbs wacky isn’t quite fair. Let me explain.
Mother Mimi (Susan Sarandon) is a snobby upper-crust matriarch who’s dying of breast cancer. Brother Ollie (Ryan Phillippe) follows in her footsteps – except for the dying part, of course. Father Jason (Bill Pullman) is suffering from schizophrenia and resides in a sanitarium, though we see him in the occasional flashback.
Because of Igby’s upbringing, he’s transformed himself into a sort of rebel against everything. He gets kicked out of public schools and private schools alike. In desperation, his mother sends him to military school, which works for a while.
So Igby’s grown up in a lifestyle of opulence – he has money, he has all the material obsessions anyone could want, and of course he wants something else: nothing. He wants to escape the clutches of his domineering mother and protective (to a fault) brother. He wants to be his own person, see his own sights, and live life as best he can. Trouble is, he’s penniless until his mother dies.
Igby’s travels take him far and wide, partially aided by the benevolence of his obscenely wealthy godfather, D. H. (Jeff Goldblum). This enables him to escape, for a time, from his schools and his family.
So what’s the point of all of this “escaping,” you ask? After all, he’s part of the elite of society, and although escaping from it sounds like fun for a time, is it worth a 90-minute exposition? I think it was, at least in this particular case. I’ve never been a strong fan of costume dramas – which is what this is, sans period costumery – but I think that the idiosyncrasies and overall oddness of Igby and his family make up for the familiarity of the script. Culkin, in his first “adult” role (I remember him best as the youngest child in “Father of the Bride”) is very well cast, showing us that acting is just as important as being cute and cuddly – in essence, he was able to do what his older brother Mac couldn’t, and that’s act after hitting puberty. Kieran Culkin’s no longer the cute little kid, and that’s good – it should work in his favor, not hamper him.
True, the script is a little pedestrian, but there are just enough oddball moments to keep the viewer interested. Sometimes screenwriters will try to make a character as weird as possible, and that just leaves the viewer cold, with no way to relate to the character. Igby’s character works because he’s believable and because he’s not infallible.
Igby Goes Down: ***1/2
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