6/5/2005: Views: Happiness
Happiness 1998, dir. Todd Solondz
This movie is about seriously messed up people, all of whom seem perfectly "normal" and "happy", but are neither. Like most real people, they don't acknowledge their serious character flaws to the world, to each other, or in most cases, to themselves.
The action revolves around three sisters and various others in their lives. Jane Adams plays Joy, an optimistic, mousey loser who lands herself in one dodgy situation after another. She seems oblivious to her failures - the only thing that really bothers her is her family's constant references to her lack of achievements; she seems to accept her lackluster life that prompts their comments. Lara Flynn Boyle is a successful, sophisticated writer living close to the fast lane but unaware of how unfulfilled her life is. Cynthia Stevenson plays the seemingly-happily married mom, proud of living the definition of "typical" in the New Jersey suburbs. She holds her life up to the others as the example of perfection and happiness, although she's incapable of intimacy, and she's elevated her subtle, cheerful digs during conversation into a passive-aggressive art form. Dylan Baker plays her husband, a psychologist who's far more messed up than most of his patients.
Their parents - Ben Gazzara and Louise Lasser - are on the verge of separation, which surprises everyone and no one. They are both great - Gazzara has aged well and is perfect as the emotionally distant husband and father. Lasser ("Mary Hartman") hasn't aged quite as well - or does a brilliant acting job - but it's good to see her again. She's perfect as the suddenly about-to-be-single older woman who usually seems on the verge of hysteria.
The large cast of additional characters is led by Philip Seymour Hoffman, a patient of the shrink who lives in the same building as the writer. He plays disturbing well a guy who's terrified by women except when he's making anonymous, obscene phone calls. Jon Lovitz, Camryn Manheim, Molly Shannon, and Elizabeth Ashley are among the seemingly odd mix of supporting actors, all of whom work just right in their parts. Even Marla Maples makes an appearance as a perky real estate saleswoman, and she has a great "gotcha" line for Donald Trump when offering encouragement to Louise Lasser: "Divorce was the best thing that ever happened to me."
Director Todd Solondz, who also wrote the script, does an amazing job of keeping it all too real as the various characters' stories unfold, each in its own disturbing detail. The often coincidental connections between the various characters are believable throughout, and their various pretenses of pretending nothing is wrong even more so. Solondz even appears in a cameo as a doorman. The soundtrack adds another surreal layer, mixing in classical, tango, Barry Manilow, and Air Supply when we'd least expect each.
This movie has some very disturbing themes and is not for the squeamish.. not in the gory sense but in terms of the subject matter itself. But Solondz does an excellent job of presenting the nasty stuff with just enough dark humor to make us keep watching. The scene in which Dylan Baker explains sex to his 11-year-old son borders on hilarious ("'Come' can also be used as a verb"), if we didn't know what we do about him.
Solondz also made the excellent Welcome to the Dollhouse with Heather Matarazzo, one of the saddest and funniest coming-of-age flicks out there. He had given up moviemaking until a series of flukes caused Dollhouse to come in to being - I'm glad, or he wouldn't have made that and gone on to Happiness.
