When asked by 'nymphomaniacal bohemian JAP' Sookie Sapperstein (Claire Danes) just what it is that he does, Igby (Kieran Culkin) replies that he is 'preparing to leave' - and 'Igby Goes Down' captures its 17-year old protagonist at precisely that moment when he is on the point of leaving childhood behind forever - except that Igby is horrified by the models of adulthood that surround him - his broken, institutionalised father (Bill Pullman), his distant, prescription-drug-addicted mother (Susan Sarandon), his platitudinous, success-obsessed godfather D.H.Banes (Jeff Goldblum), his 'young Republican' brother (Ryan Phillippe), and the teachers (including Gore Vidal, in a blink-or-you'll-miss-it cameo) from the various Protestant schools and military academies that have either expelled him or sent him fleeing in revulsion.

So like his distant ancestors Holden Caulfield and Ferris Bueller, Igby decides to take time out from all the hypocrisy he sees in the world, fleeing to the flat of Banes' lover Rachel (Amanda Peet) in New York where he plays down-and-out in a demi-monde of artists, drugdealers and bohemians, before finally reconciling himself to the impending death of the mother he detests and the active role which he must take in it 'down' in D.C..

Any film which opens with two young brothers drugging their own mother and then suffocating her with a plastic bag is bound to grab your attention - and 'Igby Goes Down' constantly keeps the viewer surprised, shocked and amused by its eccentric characters and their bitter, cynical interactions with one another. The screenplay is full of venomous wit, and is well served by the film's perfect ensemble cast. Not a single performance fails to hit its target.

Yet it is a pity that so many of the characters are so soulless, making it difficult to see past their sarcastic, brash exteriors to anything with which an audience might readily identify. As a result of this, when in the end all the iciness melts away, the sentimentality which replaces it seems unconvincingly pat. So despite enjoying the thrill of every moment in Igby's roller-coaster ride through family dysfunction, I was left wondering afterwards just what it was he and we were supposed to have learnt from his long dark summer of the soul.

All in all, an impressive directorial debut by Burr Steers (who also wrote it). Up, down, or sideways - I found it difficult by the film's close to care where Igby ended up, but it was certainly entertaining to see him get there.

Anton Bitel, 22.06.03