happiness movie

"Happiness" by Todd Solondz is a movie that embarrasses viewers , even those who admire , because it calls into question the ways in which we try to answer them. This is a portrait of desperate sadness of man? So why do we laugh ? Is this an ironic comedy ? So why tenderness with these lonely people ?
Is this depravity ? Yes, but why do we suspect , with concern , that the depraved do not seek what we all seek, but with a lack of common moral vision? In a film that looks at the abyss of human despair , there is a terrible that these characters can not be grotesque exceptions suggestion, but may in fact be part of the majority of humanity. Whenever a serial killer or sex offender is arrested , the document had to find their neighbors by saying that "Happiness" is a monster movie on the door closed " like someone else. " - Doors of apartments , bedroom doors and doors of the unconscious. It moves forward and backward between the different stories , which often link above. It shows that people want to be loved and never will be - because of his stunted emotional incompetence . There are many people who find love and respect, but not in this film.

We met Joy (Jane Adams ) , who just broke up with the loser who has been dating ( Jon Lovitz ) . He gives her a gift, ashtray recorded reading came by mail , but after she thanks him ( " almost makes me want to learn to smoke ") seized violently , "This is the girl who loves me what I am. " We met Allen ( Philip Seymour Hoffman ) , who describes the pornographic sexual fantasies to her therapist ( Dylan Baker) , and concludes that never notice because it is very annoying. The therapist , named Bill , it's boring. Later, Bill buys a teen -idol magazine and masturbates while watching photos.

We met two sisters Joy , Trish ( Cynthia Stevenson ) and Helen (Lara Flynn Boyle ) . Trish is a happy housewife , who is married to psychiatrist Bill , but he knows nothing of his pedophilia. Helen is a poet who falls names ( "Salman is on the line " ) and describes the countless men who lust for her. Parents of three sisters ( Louise Lasser and Ben Gazzara ) have been married for years , but now Lenny wants to leave . No waste of time. Just to be alone.

We met Kristina ( Camryn Manheim ) , a fat girl who lives down the hall from the solo Allen and beats his door to announce that Peter , the goalkeeper , was murdered . ( His body was dismembered and put into plastic bags : " Everyone uses Baggies That's why we can relate to the crime. "). Allen does not want to know . He flips through porn magazines, gets drunk and makes obscene phone calls. A call goes to the woman who believes . This is Sister " Folk" Helen , who enjoys his heavy breathing and reminded .
We believe unknown stores - people crammed into the sky in lonely apartments, each hiding secrets. We note with sadness and concern that treating psychiatrist Bill Little League game and his son Billy becomes fascinated by one of his teammates . When the other child has a "sleep -over" with Billy , a drug of abuse Bill 's family and child (not shown on the screen).

Thereafter, it is a heartbreaking conversation between Billy and his father. (Billy is isolated in the foreground and take the young actor is reading the lines without knowing what the old actor said. ) The conversation remains uncomfortable memory. The boy at the school said that his father is an abuser . He asks his father if it is true . His father says it is. In a scene of pain and sadness , the child asks more questions and answers briefly father, honestly. A friend who saw the film said: "Instead of lying, he told the truth, no matter how difficult it was for both. Honesty may be the only thing that saves the son of the immense damage caused by the father "Eh. Well , I hope.

"Happiness" occupies the emerging genre of New Geek Cinema, Film occupant Shadow between tragedy and irony. Todd Solondz has also "Welcome to the Dollhouse" (1996), some 11 years , small tactical popular improvised survival difficult . "Happiness" is more difficult to do, but equally attentive to the suffering of the characters that come off the beaten path - geeks, if you will, self-image is formed by the belief that people know about them, the least of which they love .

Why watch the movie ? "Happiness" is the unfortunate characters in a way that helps us see a little more clearly , we 're really sorry for them, and at the same time to see how tragedy and comedy together in disorder of sexuality. Is "happiness" exploit its controversial issues ? Finally , do not: they are seen as symptoms of despair and sadness. This operation is to create a pedophile as a convenient villain , as many movies do, ignoring their humanity and see it as an object , such as movies do the same thing an abuser does.
These are the kinds of thoughts "Happiness" inspired. Not a movie for most people . This is definitely for adults only. But it also shows a Todd Solondz filmmaker who needs attention , you can hear the evil in the air and seeks its sources.



Lara Flynn Boyle as Helen Jordan
Cynthia Stevenson as Trish Maplewood
Dylan Baker , Bill Maplewood
Philip Seymour Hoffman as Allen
Camryn Manheim as Kristina
Mona Louise Lasser as Jordan
Ben Gazzara as Lenny Jordan
Written and directed by
Todd Solondz
Comedy, Drama, Indie

Rated NR language , sex, adult themes Extreme

140 minutes