_Happiness_ **** (out of ****)
No other film released this year is likely to cause the storm of controversy that Todd Solondz's _Happiness_ is most certain to stir. A bold, provocative look at some truly miserable lives in American suburbia, this beyond-black comedy offers some queasily subversive laughs--while at the same time shocking and, more than likely, offending everyone. It is a brave, brilliantly realized piece of work, one that will be debated about for years to come.
_Happiness_ follows a broad Altman-esque cast of characters, all of whom are linked somehow, as they attempt to find happiness--or some reasonable facsimile thereof. At the core of this canvas are the three Jordan sisters: Joy (Jane Adams), Helen (Lara Flynn Boyle), and Trish (Cynthia Stevenson), daughters of long-unhappily-marrieds Lenny (Ben Gazzara) and Mona (Louise Lasser). Down-on-her-luck Joy, miserable after losing boyfriend Andy (Jon Lovitz), attempts to find fulfillment teaching at a school for adult refugees, where she meets Vlad (Jared Harris), a shady but alluring Russian. Sophisticated Helen is a successful writer, but she yearns for raw emotional authenticity, which she attempts to find through a twisted pas de deux with an obscene phone caller--whom she doesn't know is her slobby but completely innocuous neighbor Allen (Phillip Seymour Hoffman), who, in turn, is quietly pursued by his other, far less glam neighbor, Kristina (Camryn Manheim). Trish, married with three children, appears to be the one sister who has her life together. Little does she know that she doesn't. Her shrink husband Bill (Dylan Baker) has a problem suppressing certain sexual impulses... involving prepubescent boys.
The pedophilia subplot is certain to be _Happiness_'s most controversial, but not because the issue is taken lightly; in fact, it is the only story in the film that is _not_ played for laughs. What makes the topic even more disturbing to viewers (myself included) is the brutal honesty with which it is handled. Bill is certainly a monster, but Solondz and Baker refuse to let the viewer off the hook, infusing the character with genuine humanity. The rub is, Bill knows and admits that he's a monster--it's just that he cannot control his urges. His problem culminates in a heartbreaking and, at the same time, highly upsetting scene where he comes clean, with blunt frankness, about his actions to his son Billy (Rufus Read).
This gravely serious subplot may seem out of place in a film that is a comedy (albeit one that is seriously warped), but its inclusion is justified. Sick as he is, Bill is the only character who actually finds "happiness" during the film, freely indulging in his taboo desires. Everyone else fails to come close, and while their misery can be and often is laughed at, the pain is real. The sight of dumpy Allen calling random women in the phone book in hopes of getting off is funny, but his loneliness is genuinely sad; the same is the case with Kristina, who is often shrugged off with a giggle as a pathetic loser. Joy tries to do her best to do good, but her often comical failures are failures nonetheless, much like how Helen's ridiculous desperation, is, in the end, desperation.
Solondz described his film as being about "how people always struggle to make a connection." Everyone in _Happiness_ is searching for some type of connection, but, in fact, they are already connected with everyone else--through their collective isolation. The issue, then, is not connection with others, but connection with themselves. Bill comes to know who and what he is, and for one brief moment, he is happy. By the end of the film, one wonders if everyone else--or oneself--will ever be able to follow suit.
Michael Dequina
mrbrown@iname.com | michael_jordan@geocities.com
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