Lonesome Jim

After all, if the movies are to be believed, underdog sports teams have built-in life-affirming powers too.

Lonesome Jim can claim the dubious achievement of proving Leo Tolstoy's most famous adage wrong: Each unhappy family is not necessarily unhappy in its own way.

...he measures his own misery against his uniformly suicidal heroes, treats his well-meaning mother appallingly, and doesn’t recognise a great thing when it lays him (Liv Tyler).

Caught in a battle between autonomy and dependence, Jim needs time to get back on his feet, but the prospects that Indiana and his parents have to offer fill him with dread.

No tricks. No tears. But, damn, it gets you good.