Igby Goes Down

Plot Summary

Igby Slocumb, a rebellious and sarcastic seventeen-year-old boy, is at war with the stifling world of "old money" privilege he was born into. With a schizophrenic father, a self-absorbed, distant mother, and a shark-like Young Republican big brother, Igby figures there must be a better life out there -- and sets about finding it. Happily flunking out of yet another prep school, Igby is sent off to a military academy in the dreaded Midwest. With the aid of his mother's pilfered credit card, he goes on the lam. His darkly comedic voyage eventually lands him in New York, where he hides out at his godfather's (Jeff Goldblum) weekend pied-a-terre. There he encounters a deviant cast of characters. In his quest to free himself from the oppressive dysfunction of his family, Igby's struggles veer from comic to tragic.