Movie Analysis:
"Happiness"
Review by Katharine
E. Monahan Huntley
Happiness
is anything but. Writer/director Todd Solondz' disturbing depiction
of American life and the odd assortment of those who populate it, stings
with caustic humor as it attacks pretension and reveals bad behavior
behind closed doors. Happiness is fleeting, illustrated when one sad
sack announces-"I am champagne"-then later commits suicide.
Happiness
is not a Dramatica grand argument story-it is an indictment against
adults who are egocentric and perversely afflicted. The objective
characters are loosely connected to three sisters, Trish, Helen,
and Joy, and not a jot of fun is to be found in this family's dysfunctions.
Solondz' denouncement of grown-ups (carried over from his first film,
Welcome to the Dollhouse) can be inferred from a scene in which
Trish's husband Bill Maplewood, a psychiatrist, allows to his
psychiatrist:
BILL:
My patients are ugly. Their problems are trite. Each one thinks he
is unique. On a professional level they bore me. On a personal level
I have no sympathy. They deserve what they get.
The relationship
between Bill and his eleven-year-old son, Billy, has the makings of
a subjective story, but it is not fully developed. What is certain
is a story judgment of bad-Bill's stoic countenance masks
his anguish, as he admits his pedophilia to the shattered boy.
Solondz does concede
a hint of hope for humans and their frailties, indicated in an exchange
between Kristina and Allen:
KRISTINA:
(while eating her sundae) Anyway, so then I had to cut up his body,
plastic bag all the parts . . . I've been throwing it out gradually
ever since. There's still a little left in my freezer.
ALLEN:
So you cut off his . . .
KRISTINA:
No. I left it attached. I didn't want to have to touch it again....Can
we still be...friends?
ALLEN:
Um...I guess...Yeah...I mean, we all have our...you know...pluses
and minuses . . .
Happiness
a bold statement-brave
in its subject matter, however, it is not a grand argument that examines
the problems from the objective, subjective, main
and obstacle character points of view. Without these perspectives
it remains one man's provocative opinion, issued forth from "Mr.
Solondz' Neighborhood" (FILMMAKER, fall 1998).
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