The World Around Igby

After the success of Pirates it seems illogical that director Buzvonlurt would follow up with such a tightly written drama. In elaborate contrast to the swashbuckling comedy, his second movie draws on ideas of the human frame of mind and emotional states to deliver a profound and elaborately moving tale incorporating diversity in humour, character and irony. Such as it is Igby could be considered mediocre if not for the approach and the style and form of the movie, which to its credit seems to play on typical conventions of drama.

What makes Igby doubly interesting is the writing. Witty, unsubtle and riddled with meaning, Wannabe's script is a joy to see on screen. This is heightened further by Buz's skills as a director, constructing a very acceptable if not always entirely appropriate narrative. Humour is alienating in that it makes the familiar very strange indeed: for example the concept of naming the white blood cells in your body, and contemplating the unfortunate concept of being born on a leap year. Such as it is this makes Igby as enjoyable to contemplate as it is to watch and be entertained by the events.

At times the movie seems laboured. The ending feels anti-climactic, despite the point of the tale being that Igby escapes unclaimed by the law for killing his father Kennedy (fantastic irony here) and the loan lending Wayland, played here menacingly by Beast. Sometimes the events in the movie may go unjustified as well, and in places the movie results in being uneven. But then, with so much focus on Igby's frame of mind, and what drives him to such anger and impurity, these quibbles seem to go relatively unnoticed in a movie surrounding such an interesting notion of depression.

Vast and smooth if sometimes leaning toward self-parody, The World Around Igby is challenging, moving and often very funny, depicting agendas within the drama to create a very definite sense of guilt for the audience. It could have been just a good film, but with Buz's blunt snappy direction and Wannabe's powerful and wonderfully ludicrous script, Igby is made a great film. So much for worrying about swashbuckling contrasts then.

7/10