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Rating: Are you familiar with the book "The Catcher in the Rye"? For sure, this movie takes inspiration, especially in the protagonist, from the figure of Holden Caulfield, the non-conformist boy who gets into trouble in Salinger's book.
In the movie, however, it's Igby who falls into a "series of unfortunate events" due to his restless and untamable nature. The son of a schizophrenic father, an alcoholic mother, and accompanied by a fanatic fascist brother, our hero finds himself hopelessly in a world too big for him, too full of dangers he tries to escape from only by constant flight, burning through every stage of his life.
After leaving school multiple times for going against the tide and breaking the rules, he is sent to military service from which he is ultimately released, but immediately upon leaving he regains his libertine nature thanks to his godfather, a high-ranking man, who takes him to "work" with him. The opportunity offered to him is unique, and Igby, besides grabbing the hand, also takes the arm; he makes contact at some work parties with his godfather's girlfriend (an old fox!) and with another girl much older than him, also very free-spirited in character even if complex and seemingly inaccessible.
The story spirals mid-film, when Igby escapes even his godfather's control, or when he sleeps with the latter's girlfriend, when his mother is on the verge of dying, and when he wants to run away with the quirky girl he met at the party.
Naturally, his is a foreshadowed failure, understandable by the mere fact that his immaturity makes him a slave to himself, due to his desire to be an adult, and at the same time for his tendency to remain childish and still a boy.
The film is not a comedy and every smile in the film has nonetheless a greater implication in the context in which it is inserted. The most touching scene is when (in a flashback) Igby, just 8/9 years old, finds himself brushing his teeth in the bathroom while his father is in the shower. Suddenly, the latter begins to laugh and then scream and thrash around under the cold water and for the force with which he performs the gesture, he shatters the glass doors of the shower and falls to the ground bleeding, crying and full of cuts under the shocked, motionless, and dry-eyed gaze of little Igby.
The soundtrack is composed by artists of the caliber of Coldplay or The Beta Band, with an interesting connection established in the film between the songs and the images which often have a different emotional intensity.
The film is available on DVD although at least in my city it has never been shown in theaters, but it is present everywhere in video stores.
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