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77%
Overall Rating
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Ranked #1,999
...out of 20,698 movies
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The lives of several individuals intertwine as they go about their lives in their own unique ways, engaging in acts society as a whole might find disturbing in a desperate search for human connection.
--IMDb
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This is a difficult film to watch on a multitude of levels:
01. Director Todd Solondz has little regard for his audience, in a good way. He doesn't care about spoon feeding an issue to them and presents his issues very plainly and very honestly, but also in a way that still seems very cinematic in the doing. With "Happiness" -- how do you present a sub-plot about a normal suburban father who sodomizes small children on the side? How do you have a father and son have a traditional 'father and son chat' with the dad giving the son graphic sexual suggestions and even going further than that, at points? Todd Solondz knows most audiences won't tolerate that -- but he doesn't care. He feels this topic is valid and he presents it in a very fictitious and very cinematic way, which is what helps make "Happiness" such a strong picture.
02. The characters are numerous. We are introduced to everyone from Joy Jordan (Jane Adams), who seems to have little direction and gets a job teaching immigrants how to speak English; Allen (Philip Seymour Hoffman), a pervert who likes making crude calls to women, who eventually meets Kristina (Camryn Manheim), who hacked up her doorman because he tried to come on to her; Helen (Lara Flynn Boyle), a successful writer who doesn't seem to have anything meaningful in her life; Mona (Louise Lasser) and Lenny (Ben Gazzara) -- who separate after years and years or marriage, forcing Lenny to re-evaluate his life and Mona to discover a new way to occupy her time; and Bill Maplewood (Dylan Baker), the average dad who just happens to also be a regular monster.
03. Solondz' directorial style is very meandering. He creeps along at a snail's pace, and there really isn't much action in the film. Everyone blends together, but nothing exciting pops up, other than the written word and the ways in which the actors perform those words. The opening sequence, with Jane Adams and Jon Lovitz at the restaurant is wonderful. Lovitz delivers his best performance to date, and certainly his most unusual. He has such an awkward intensity to the monologue that makes every second work. There is also a very fantastical sequence with Dylan Baker daydreaming about taking a trip to the park and gunning down person after person after person. But, the most intense sequence comes at the end, with Baker and his son talking about things that Baker's character might have done to his son's friend. It's tragic and it's hard to watch and it's amazing.
I appreciate Todd Solondz' work. He takes on issues no one else wants to take. With "Welcome to the Dollhouse", he dealt with alienation. With "Storytelling", he tackles the faux family lifestyle; and with "Palindromes", he tackles abortion. With "Happiness", he's dealing with loneliness, but loneliness that takes differing forms. He presents a group of lonely people who are not finding their 'happiness'. Through this film, he tries to help each one of them find their happiness, even when that happiness takes the form of something very sordid and very horrible. Solondz is not condoning what he presents -- he's merely presenting it. Love it or hate it, "Happiness" gets people talking, and that is what a good film does. 9/10.
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#1:
grain of sand
- added June 10, 2007 at 5:22am
saw this movie on the high reccomendation of a
friend.
I thought it was really great,
really fucked up, and I had a really awkward
feeling the whole time the movie was rolling.
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#2:
Tristan
- added November 1, 2009 at 5:32pm
Really really great movie. Difficult to watch at
times though. Too many disturbing and awkward
moments. Kind of makes you happy with your own
situation after seeing what some of these people
go through.
10/10
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