The title character of
Igby goes down is a messed up, sarcastic little brat who regularly gets beat up, both emotionally and physically by everyone he cares about, or should care about.
That includes his neo-fascist (Republican) brother Ollie, his depressed and prescription addicted mother Mimi, his "nymphomaniacal, pseudo-Bohemian
JAP" quasi-girlfriend Sookie, his sadistic and egotistical godfather DH, DH's confused & addicted mistress Rachel and Igby's schizophrenic father Jason.
Igby responds to the restrictions of the various private schools his mother has sent him to by running to New York, where he wanders aimlessly, looking for and finding nothing in particular.
The film begins and ends with the murder / suicide of Mimi by her sons, and although some have seen the film as an explanation or build up to this, I would argue that it simply is a tool to help audiences understand that this film is postmodern and only going in circles.
If you have read any reviews at all of this film, I apologize for the following repetition: This film will remind you of
Catcher in the Rye.
Never having read Catcher in the Rye, I donÂt know this personally, but seeing it in every review of the film I read has forced me to embrace it as truth on a plane with gravity.
This isn't "The best coming of age film since
The Graduate" as
Paul Clinton says, but it is solid in dark postmodern sort of way.
Igby himself is
not, as
Thom posits "pretty unaffected by his traumatic life."
He is just as messed up as everyone else is, he is simply more aware of it.
**Spoilers Herein**
By the time Mimi tells Igby that DH is his father on her deathbed, the viewer probably already knows it. DH's constant reference to Igby as "My Boy" combined for his constant support for the youth financially for no good reason gives us pointed clues, and Mimi's comment that "His conception was an act of animosity" sort of gives it away. But that doesn't seem to change his perception of either DH or the "father" he watched break down. He still visits Jason in the hospital before leaving for California at the end of the film, and makes no effort to reconcile with DH. It seems more to serve as hope, because he no longer feels predestined for breakdown. It is a last straw before he walks away from everything. The only things that are remain for him in New York is Sookie and Ollie, and he know has another barrier between himself and Ollie.
**End of Spoilers**
Pungente and Williams tie Igby to the agony of Christ in the garden. Igby, like Christ, is torn between his physical liberty and his spiritual freedom. While Igby doesn't know what freedom is, he knows that he doesn't have it, and so seeks physical liberty. Christ sacrificed his physical liberty for the spiritual freedom of submission to the father. Christ (obviously) make a much better choice, but we cannot be too hard on Igby. While we hate his attitude and callus actions towards those around him, he is primarily a product of his sinful nature and his environment.
I see a lot of Igbys in culture today, and I see a little of myself in him. He has a lot material advantages, a lot of knowledge and some friends, but no connectedness or community. Our culture has that type of individual in abundance. He covers pain with sarcasm. His pain through the actions and hypocrisy of those around him is the source for the venom he flings back. I struggle with this myself. When I get stung, the first impulse is to sting back.
Director Burr Steers tries to convince us that there is progress, but a Christian worldview struggles against that view. The music and cinematography in the film both clash with the emotionally painful dialogue. Following one of Igby's most emotionally painful moments in the film, discovering that Sookie is sleeping with his brother, we are treated to bright scenes of fall in Manhattan, and the somber turning joyous sound of Coldplay's We Live in a Beautiful World. The kids had his heart, still beating, torn out of his chest, and we're saying that it's a beautiful world? Later in the movie, when he asks to sleep with Sookie, she tells him, "No, it will just make you feel empty and lonely afterwards." Again, not much development for Igby. Even in his frustration following the death of his mother, Igby is missing the point. He denies that he will apologize to her before she dies, and shortly after she has passed, he punches her empty shell while screaming how sorry he was. In a later discussion with Ollie, he says that after he was finished pummeling her, he felt the closest to her. Of course, you dolt. It's easy to be close with someone who's dead, they will never hurt you again.
Frazier claims that Igby matures as the movie progresses, and that "he can see the edifying providence of suffering." I don't see anywhere that he demonstrates that. Although he admits the military school was good for him because it gave him perspective, his better understanding of the past did not translate into better decision-making in the future. Igby ran to New York to get away from his family, and when he realized that he was not escaping, he killed his mother before running again. His sparse relationship with his brother and lack of a real father meant onlt that he will no longer be hunted down and pulled back into the negative spiral that his life was. However, because of the killing of his mother, it is difficult to see him as moving forward. Instead I would argue that Igby Goes Down seems to be a bit more like a parable for the text in Ecclesiastes. Nothing is new, and nothing is an improvement. Berardinelli says that the film "ends pretty much where it begins" and the same can be said for the title character.
Labels: Movies
