Igby Goes Down is a film that displays a teenage boy, Igby, struggling to find his purpose in life. While searching for any normal reality that might exist in the world, Igby finds himself interacting with many different characters. Oliver, his "perfect" brother, Sookie, his make believe girlfriend, and Rachel, his drug addicted friend, all exhibit similar and yet strangely different characteristics of our main character, Igby. It is because of these important people that Igby eventually finds his true colors and moves on to what he hopes to be a good life. .
Oliver, Igby's older brother, is obviously their mother's favorite of her two sons. Igby shows no mercy for his mother, while Oliver does. Oliver dreams of inheriting the power that Igby's godfather, D.H., possess, "he's an obscenely rich parody, and if he wants to shape me in his image . . . hey." Igby could care less about D.H.'s fortune, and never acknowledges its importance to him. Oliver attends a very nice college, unlike Igby who finally completes his GED and sees no further need in continuing his education. Igby eventually realizes that Oliver is much like his mother. "They are rigid and they are cold," that was Igby's explanation of his Mimi and Oliver as he screamed at Sookie, who at this point was falling in love with Oliver. In the end, Oliver seems to become more harsh toward his mother than even Igby is. Oliver makes sure Mimi dies and afterwards never sheds a tear, during which time Igby thrusts himself upon his mother's lifeless body and begs her to wake up. When Oliver says that there is nothing between Igby and himself, Igby boldly states, "just an ever diminishing amount of blood.".
At D.H.'s party in the Hamptons, Igby meets Sookie, a very opinionated, college student who eventually ditches Igby for his "closer to her age," brother. She views the world in the same way that Igby does and in the beginning wants to accompany him on his escape to "sunnier days.
