Brotherly love (and fighting) on the set

Kieran Culkin wasn’t exaggerating when he described his latest film, the nostalgic indie drama “Lymelife,” as a “family affair.” Indeed, the sibling dynamics particular to brothers hovered over the entire production.

“Lymelife,” which opened in theaters Friday, is told from the point of view of an enigmatic 15-year-old named Scott Bartlett, played by Kieran’s younger brother Rory. The film, which has been compared to Ang Lee’s “The Ice Storm,” is set in the 1970s, during a winter when Scott’s parents, played by Alec Baldwin and Jill Hennessy, teetered on the precipice of divorce. His crush on next-door neighbor Adriana (Emma Roberts) has reached excruciating proportions, and he’s confronted with his father’s blatant indiscretions with Adriana’s mother (Cynthia Nixon) as Adriana’s father (Timothy Hutton), who is battling Lyme disease, begins to deteriorate mentally. Kieran plays Jimmy, Scott’s hot-tempered older brother who is home on leave from the military.

The semiautobiographical tale from filmmaking brothers Steven and Derick Martini, which took almost a decade to make, is loosely based on their Long Island adolescence. Derick directed and Steven scored the film. Together, they wrote, produced and edited it.

The film, and its theme of family dysfunction, stands in stark contrast to their first movie, a romantic comedy called “Smiling Fish and Goat on Fire” about two brothers who share a house in Los Angeles’s Fairfax district. The Martinis co-wrote and starred in the 1999 film, which Derick describes as “a rookie mistake.” “Lymelife” was a far more personal endeavor and a chance for the Martinis to come to terms with their parents’ divorce.

For Kieran and Rory, the film marks their first time performing opposite each other, and both were wondering how their relationship would play out during the shoot. Despite some on-set high jinks -- fiddling with their microphones and scrawling inappropriate illustrations on the director’s slate -- they were quick to get down to business.

“I’d never been on screen with any of my brothers, so I didn’t know how it was going to work,” said Rory, who appeared as younger versions of characters played by brother Macaulay in “Richie Rich” and Kieran in “Igby Goes Down.” “Do we take each other seriously? Are we professionals right now? We just got on set and it sort of came together. We were very professional, and very annoying when we had the opportunity to be.”

There are some notable similarities between the Culkin and Martini brothers. Derick and Kieran are the older, outgoing ones; Steven and Rory, younger, more interior. Steven has described his relationship with Derick as “absolute polarity. . . . We fight over words and when we write it is torture. He’s older, he’s got to be the bad cop and he doesn’t care.”

Rory’s character, Scott, is closest in demeanor to Steven, whose thoughtful disposition earned him the nickname “SpaceShip Martini” because “he’s out there,” said Rory. But some of Scott’s experiences in the film -- his awkward deflowering among them -- mirror the authentic humiliations of Derick. Meanwhile, Kieran’s character, Jimmy, is most like Derick, even down to Jimmy’s penchant for fisticuffs on behalf of his younger brother.

“It was a big family affair on set because Derrick and Steve have been working on this for years,” said Kieran.

Back in 2001, when the Martinis first brought the script to the Sundance Institute’s Screenwriting Lab, Kieran was cast as the young Scott. But over the many years it took to develop the project, Kieran outgrew that role and the Martini brothers tapped Rory. By that point, Rory had already memorized Scott’s lines and made key decisions about his character. He’d kept a copy of the script on his nightstand for years.

“I basically grew up with it,” he said. “It was as much a part of me as anything. I had to do it. It was just second nature to me.”

Rory, 19, is the youngest of the four Culkin brothers and in his scenes with Kieran, 26, he has perfected that put-upon look that comes naturally with that kind of fraternal order. Though Kieran has more film credits than Rory, his younger brother’s presence motivated Kieran.

“I recall being a little nervous,” Kieran said about acting opposite his younger brother. “Any time I could look in his eyes and he could see me acting, I would say, ‘Oh, I gotta step up.’ ”

It was chemistry Derick amplified whenever possible. For instance, during a scene in which Jimmy playfully swats an already bruised Scott in the face, Rory’s winces in pain are genuine. “I saw my brother rubbing his eye,” Kieran recalled. “Of course! Why wouldn’t I hit his eye?”

“I would let the camera roll sometimes and whisper in Kieran’s ear, ‘Now screw with him,’ ” said Derick. “Rory wasn’t expecting it and Rory gets a pop in the eye. All those gems I wanted in the film. And I got them.”

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