A Slipping Down Life (1999)

I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

Highly Overrated But Still Good

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

This is simply one of the most superb little films around. I'm always surprised when people have never heard of it. This film really capitalizes on the chemistry between Guy Pearce and Lili Taylor. I've liked many of the films Pearce has made, "Memento," "L.A. Confidential," etc. but "Slipping-down" life is in my opinion his best. He's a natural. One of the best working actors today. I just wish he were in more films like this one.I'm looking forward to seeing "Jack Irish." I saw him recently in "Hateship, Loveship" and he was simply terrific. The real downer in the film was Kristen Wiig, who was supremely awful. She was the antithesis of good acting. For the life of me I can't figure out how people can cast a supremely good actor like Guy Pearce next to the flat, boring, expressionless Kristen Wiig. I can't believe she continues to get acting jobs when she's so utterly boring. Okay, enough ranting.Watch and enjoy "A Slipping-down Life."

I am a fan of Flannery O'Connor's Southern gothic, the kind of short stories that define `grotesque,' where humor is slow, characters are off center, defects abound, and life is a series of stops along the born-again trail. First-time writer/director Toni Kalem (`Sopranos') channels O'Connor when a lady sitting in an early scene of `A Slipping Down Life' has a large wound on her knee, not featured but just there as the camera pans the group.Besides minor grotesqueries, the major one consists of the name Evie Decker (Lili Taylor, `Casa De Los Babys') inversely carves on her forehead with broken glass: `Drumstrings. ' `Drum' Casey (Guy Pearce, `Memento') is a soulful country singer catching wallflower Evie's fancy, implausibly marrying her, and along with her going through a few hells on the road to rebirth. The thirteen original songs Pearce sings are melancholic country, all the more impressive because of his singing.The road is littered with Southern stereotypes (O'Connor never allowed those types in her very original stories) like Clotelia (Irma P. Hall, `Lady Killers'), whose black housekeeper is a true throwback to unoriginal Hollywood typing of the early 20th century. Add Drum's rube family members and slutty Faye-Jean Lindsay (Shawnee Smith) as an oversexed, overacting girl friend and you have an inexperienced director ignoring the nuances of Anne Tyler's novel, from which Kalem adapted.But `A Slipping Down Life' belongs to Lili Taylor, who gives us a sympathetic young virgin, lovingly attached to her introverted widower father and doggedly determined to make something of Drum's talent and her life. Her underplayed demeanor and plain looks offset the grotesque mark on her forehead; her strength of character ("I've never backed down on anything in my life") serves further to distance her from the usual Southern hicks so popular in immature cinema. In his `Autobiography,' W.B. Yeats described the link between self and happiness and renewal so much a part of this film's power: `I think that all happiness depends on the energy to assume the mask of some other self; that all joyous or creative life is a rebirth as something not oneself, something which has no memory and is created in a moment and perpetually renewed.'Although the story brings no surprises and repeats some Southern chestnuts, the film ultimately succeeds because of the principals' considerable acting talent and the sheer truth of a young couple trying to escape their tyrannical roots to be reborn.

"A Slipping Down Life" was originally released at the Sundance Film Festival in 1999, but because of "creative differences" between the producers and the director/actors, it never was released...until now. Lion's Gate Films now owns the distribution rights. The film premieres in NY and LA on May 14th (elsewhere across the United States in late May/early June). I saw the movie last month at the Phoenix Film Festival. Toni Kalem, the director, was present, and she conducted a Q&A session with the audience after the showing. One of the common topics during this discussion was related to the differences between the book and the movie.While I haven't read it, it appeared that the die-hard fans of the book were totally drawn in and satisfied with the movie (and Anne Tyler, herself, gave her "official approval" to Toni Kalem's screen play adaption).Lili Taylor is absolutely brilliant in this movie, and Guy Pearce offers a performance you might not expect. Finally, before heading out to see this, make a point to grab a box of Kleenex - I found myself in tears more than a few times.

Though this film is hard to find, it's worth the effort. Lili Taylor gives a delicate and beautiful performance as a troubled and lonely girl slipping directly from childhood to middle age. Guy Pearce plays an aspiring musician who refuses to abandon his vision, but desperately wants to hit the big time. The images of small-town America are dead on, and are some of the most enjoyable parts of the film. The minor roles are absolutely delightful. Irma P. Hall's role as housekeeper is hilarious, as is Bruno Kirby's portrayal of Evie's boss. See this one when you get the chance.