Slipping Down Life (1999)

26% of critics liked it
(65 reviews)
49% of users liked it
(1,040 ratings)

Making its world premiere at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival, this story adapted for the screen and directed by first-timer Toni Kalem is based on the Anne Tyler novel of the same name. The story deals with finding love in a dead-end life. Evie (Lili Taylor) is a loner, living with her widowed… More Making its world premiere at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival, this story adapted for the screen and directed by first-timer Toni Kalem is based on the Anne Tyler novel of the same name. The story deals with finding love in a dead-end life. Evie (Lili Taylor) is a loner, living with her widowed father, who works at an aging kiddie park where she is a costumed cartoon character. One night she hears the words and music of a musician named Drumstrings Casey (Guy Pearce) on the radio, and Evie is immediately infatuated by him. She attends his concerts and falls in love with him. The problem is he doesn't know she exists, so Evie decides to carve Casey's name on her forehead with broken glass. The resulting media attention gets her an introduction to Drumstrings Casey himself. From there, a relationship develops as Casey needs Evie for creative support and Evie needs Casey for emotional stability. Soon after, they get married; unfortunately their problems only get worse as Casey's career takes a nosedive and Evie's father passes away. Will these two people make something of themselves or will they forever just be slipping down life? ~ Chris Gore, Rovi

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Rating, Runtime: R, 1 hr. 51 min.
Directed By: Toni Kalem
Written By: Toni Kalem
Genres: Drama, Romance, Comedy

In Theaters: Jan 22, 1999 Wide
On DVD: Oct 19, 2004
Studio: Lions Gate Films

Critic Reviews

Tom Long, Detroit News
It's interesting, not fascinating, intriguing, not electrifying. But for those in the mood for an offbeat pleasure, A Slipping Down Life may well satisfy.
Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press
Never cuts much deeper than its subject.
Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Weaves a fragile --- and often funny --- spell.
Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post
A perplexing, dark and brooding exercise.
Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle
What at first seems like observed, exaggerated truth soon reveals itself as a series of writerly conceits being followed doggedly to some logical conclusion.
Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post
It's too common to complain that a book is better than the movie. But in A Slipping-Down Life, the score trumps what's on screen as well.
Cole Smithey, ColeSmithey.com
Crap.
Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews
The two stars were not right for the parts.
Walter Chaw, Film Freak Central
If not entirely successful, at least ambitious and, for a long while, even brave.
Shirley Sealy, Film Journal International
The predictable plot lurches forward elliptically, and it's difficult to sustain interest in it.
Jeffrey M. Anderson, Combustible Celluloid
A Slipping Down Life has been sitting on the shelf since 1999, and it's not hard to see why.
Matt Brunson, Creative Loafing
There's probably not much of an audience for a turgid drama whose monotonous tempo rarely fluctuates from one scene to the next.
Paul Sherman, Boston Herald
An underwhelming misfire of muddled tone and equally unclear emotion.
Marjorie Baumgarten, Austin Chronicle
Has a lot going for it, but not nearly all it should have.
Jack Garner, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
Alternately gloomy and silly stuff.
Sean Burns, Philadelphia Weekly
Well, I guess it's better than Van Helsing... slightly.
Jean Lowerison, San Diego Metropolitan
What's slipping here isn't so much life as judgment on the part of Taylor and Pearce, two splendid actors marooned on bad-script island where nothing really works.