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Caught this film at the Toronto International Film Festival. Life During Wartime is a depressing and envelop pushing film that crosses boundaries, but never feels gross or shocking for the sake of it. For those familiar with Todd Solondz previous films Welcome To The Dollhouse and Happiness, you know what type of material is in his films. This one is no exception.

Telling the story of a dysfunctional family, we follow 3 separate stories. The father, who was just released from prison after some cruel and disgusting charges tries to find his son, to make sure he doesn't turn out like him. The son is in college, he has two siblings, a younger brother who is turning 13 and becoming a man with a bar mitzvah and a younger sister who is a karaoke singer. The wife/mother is looking for a new lover in her life and finds this other man who makes her, in her own words to her 12 year old son, wet. Finally the sister of the mother who mixes romance and her work. The problem is that death follows her wherever she goes and it has kind of driven her crazy.

Get all that? This is my first Todd Solondz film, but I know of his previous films and what they dealt with and I can say that Happiness is darker. Life During Wartime isn't with it's fair share of uncomfortable scenes. Specifically the son asking about his father and why he is in prison. The father is played by Ciarán Hinds, who has little dialogue, but the scenes in which he confronts his son is powerful and stands as the most memorable. Paul Reubens plays an interesting character who's only two scenes, but those two scenes are stand outs.

Everything about the film is awkward, straight from the beginning. There are moments that you laugh at, that make you feel dirty. Janey as the mother is comical and if you're a fan of Happiness look out for some recurring characters, just played by different actors.

The film is well shot and acted, it doesn't really drag, but it is slow. It's mostly scene after scene of conversations. It's not a laugh riot and there are no laugh out loud scenes. The comedy is dark and subtle at times. It's more dramatic and depressing than comedic. It feels short and the ending leaves a lot to be desired. It was abrupt and left a lot of questions unanswered.

It explores how well one can forgive someone and mirrors reality. It will divide the audience and fans of his earlier work will most likely be satisfied. I enjoyed it, but it's not a film I would want to see again. I give it credit for being a well done film and it's thought provoking in some scenes, as a whole the film is good. It just has a certain audience and you'll know if you're one of them or not.

Not being acquainted with Todd Solondz before now, I found myself comparing "Life During Wartime" at an advance screening tonight to the Cohen brothers, "A Serious Man"-- a film I really enjoyed. It felt like it was hitting a lot of the same notes at the front end of the film, with its humour and the Jewish family life. This was considerably darker--don't worry, I noticed.

I found the Ciaran Hinds story and acting strong, though it made me wary I was being set up to think, "Oh, not such a bad guy, after all." I was relieved this never went further than to suggest, "only human, after all." I'd be interested to hear what some of my social worker friends think of how the film treats this family's big secret, especially in light of the forgiveness theme.

Joy's thread in this film, quirky and fun as it was at times, felt the weakest. There was something about the character's little girl voice and the vacillation and mood swings that started to annoy and distract me, after a time. Maybe the director was just playing with another cliché, there, about long-suffering women, but, well, see for yourself.

I would really like to see Todd Solondz produce something on the level of WELCOME TO THE DOLLHOUSE or HAPPINESS again but I'm afraid that I'll just have to settle for watching those earlier works. To be fair, I don't know what he could have done with the characters from HAPPINESS that would have worked better. I revisited HAPPINESS before seeing LIFE DURING WARTIME to refresh my memory. That film crackles throughout with uneasiness. When we laugh, it's to release tension. It's not the cast's fault that this film lacks the same punch. While unrated in the US, my guess is that this would have received a PG-13 or an R for a few exposed breasts. HAPPINESS would have been NC-17 for sure. HAPPINESS was about getting whatever happiness one can no matter the cost to others. This is a film about forgiving and forgetting and moving on. I can certainly forgive Todd Solondz for what he tried to achieve here even as the film fades from memory.

11 years after Happiness, his poisonous stab at moral absolutism, Todd Solondz returned with this equally bleak sequel, a continuation of the all-American domestic grotesque. The characters return, except now played by different actors (including a bleary Paul "Pee Wee" Reubens), as does Solondz' ability to challenge expectations with disarming directness and surgical precision.

This is a less consistent film than its predecessor, particularly in terms of tone. Happiness harboured an almost garish John Waters trash aesthetic, whereas Wartime often shifts into something more sombrely lit and handsome, even entering noir territory at times, as when Ciaran Hinds' Bill and Charlotte Rampling's Jacqueline meet in a whisky-coloured bar to do semantic battle before indulging in a bout of loveless sex.

The characters are mostly horror movie monsters masked in the fascia of suburban admissibility - none more so than Trish (Allison Janney), the selfish mad-mom who is delighted by the fallacy of the nuclear ideal, lusting after "normal". Her son, Timmy (Dylan Riley Snyder), is the traumatised voice of reason: a humanist on the cusp of corruption. Then there is Joy (Shirley Henderson), a deep-feeling adult alone amidst the animal chaos: frail, fragile and bereft (in mind and body); in search of absent metaphysical guidance; a closed book desperate to do good; desperate to stop pretending any more.

Loneliness, rape, suicide and despair all echo in a bubble of carefully constructed sentimentality. Wartime doesn't quite carry the joke all the way. Certain latter scenes, particularly involving Hinds' recently-released Bill, are played disconcertingly straight. But then this is a film about the pathology of forgiveness (the film's former title), the corrosive nature of trauma, and the final consolation of repression and faith - themes in which perhaps even Mr Solondz couldn't find the humour.

"You die for me and I will know you love me," says Allen (The Wire's Michael Kenneth Williams) from the grave. No one in American cinema is better than Solondz at highlighting fickleness and absurdity of human interaction, and the paradoxes we contrive for ourselves. And although it can be wearying to endure such an indictment, we will always need filmmakers willing to float like faecal matter in Hollywood's homogenous soup.

It would be fair to describe the films of Todd Solondz as shining a light on the inherent humor of emotional scaring. In 'Life During Wartime', Solondz focuses on the scar more closely than his other films, allowing the humor to be visible only on the periphery.

'Happiness' would be generally accepted as Todd Solondz's most critically acclaimed film yet attempting a sequel would be a daunting task; a huge risk. Solondz achieved great success with 'Life During Wartime' by taking a radically different approach to the same characters and psychological backdrop.

The most obvious change would be the complete re-casting of the characters from 'Happiness'. This would be in complete contravention of the conventional "Hollywood" approach to sequels and such a notion would have likely been dismissed entirely by a major studio; the sorts of people who would like to see Harrison Ford encased in carbonite for all of eternity so he can be stuck in front of a camera on demand. Yet, with 'Life During Wartime' re-casting every character from 'Happiness' proved to be the best approach. The people in the film all have deep emotional scaring that has healed the best it could over time and they've changed psychologically speaking so seeing a different actor portray the same character adds a strong emphasis to their inner lives. This disassociation from 'Happiness' makes confronting the subject matter much easier for the viewer.

Visually, this film was much more plain than the already visually uneventful films of Todd Solondz. The characters are all trying to find stability and their tumultuous emotional lives are sharply contrasted by the stillness of the camera and the scenery. The use of color contrast and available light all the more heightens a naturalistic sense of one grasping for a pleasant reality that can always be seen but maintains it's elusiveness.

This film lacks the absurdist humor that was prevalent in 'Happiness' which makes the film less accessible; it is a sequel in story alone. The presentation focuses your attention on the uncomfortable truths of what has happened and is happening. Even the dream sequences with the ghosts of heart-broken suicide victims maintains a strict realism. This would lead most people to view the film as a drama but, like with all Solondz films, the director intends on making you laugh at the most uncomfortable things in life. Where in 'Happiness' the humor is paraded in front of you, this film tucks the humor in the blurred edges of your consciousness only to be seen by those with the eye for it.

Life During Wartime is of sorts a sequel to Happiness, but Todd Solondz chose a different cast for his latest film to play the same characters. I have seen Happiness, but don't remember it well enough and going into Wartime was actually unaware it was a continuation of events.

Three sisters, Joy, Helen and Trish are utterly different souls leading utterly different lives. Joy is a little scattered and has just separated from her husband and is visited by the ghost of a former co worker. Trish lives with her two younger kids, one of whom Timmy is preparing for his bar mitzvah. She has started dating again after her husband was jailed for molesting children, but she is unaware he has been released. Trish is a successful screenwriter in Hollywood, but is old and distant towards the rest of her family.

The sisters lives intertwine together and with characters from each others past and all three try and long to find love and happiness and is for the most part very enjoyable. I recall, perhaps vaguely that Solondz' other films are a little hard going and often harsh, yet Wartime feels a little brighter. However there are some uncomfortable moments in it, such as where Trish explains her feelings towards to her new man to her son or Timmy's inquisitive questioning about 'faggots', but moments are few.

Acting across the cast is excellent with a fine performance from Alison Janney as Trish and whilst squeaky voiced Shirley Henderson can often be annoying in this she is almost endearing. It is a dark film and while it never shocks out right, it does venture to the borderline. And while it's not laugh out loud there are some funny moments in it. You don't have to be familiar with Happiness to enjoy this film, even if it's a typical audience divider film, it works well on it's on. Nor do you have to be a Solondz fan to enjoy this, though those that are will relish the film even more.

More of my reviews at iheartfilms.weebly.com

First off, while I'm not a fan of everything Solondz has done, I consider Happiness one of my all-time favorite films. Thus, I was really looking forward to Life During Wartime, but after the film was over, I ended up wishing that Solondz had just left Happiness alone. It feels like a direct-to-video exploitation release, or maybe even an especially polished but ultimately off-model fanfic selection in an alternate universe where Happiness somehow holds the stature of Harry Potter.

I am OK with the decision (probably forced, given the current stature of folks like Philip Seymour Hoffman) to recast everyone involved. But given that this is effectively billed as a spiritual sequel, it's hard to get past some of the resulting serious discrepancies in performance and character. Ally Sheedy, Allison Janney, Claran Hines and Michael K. Williams all turn in otherwise-good performances that unfortunately have very little in common with their characters' original personalities, making believable continuation impossible. Dylan Snyder's Timmy represents a new character that effectively replaces the role of Billy in Happiness, but he's nowhere near as believable or likable as that character was.

Shirley Henderson, in particular, totally misses the tone and purpose of Jane Adams in the role of Joy, who was perhaps the only "sympathetic" character in the original (other than Billy). We no longer experience Joy as a sweet, lovable granola-crunchy dreamer and world-worn lifelong loser. Instead, Henderson comes off as some kind of generally-emotionless whispering wee faerie with none of Adams' warmth or ability to generate pathos. I do, however, greatly enjoy Paul Reubens' spot-on performance in the place of Jon Lovitz's original Andy-- although Andy's role in this movie is now inexplicably central, given how little he really mattered to Joy past the first half-hour in Happiness.

It's hard for a Happiness fan to get past the labored and extremely drawn-out exposition that results from all these character discrepancies. You get the feeling that Solondz is having to take unusual pains to catch us up on the story, and to get us to buy New Actor Y in the role of Old Actor X. The movie starts to finally lift up out of these dregs in the last half hour or so, just in time to make us wonder what the point was, and/or why he didn't just create an entirely new universe with his entirely new cast to save himself (and us) all the trouble. I can't imagine a viewer who has never seen Happiness would find its first two-thirds any more satisfying for all the effort.

Most troublingly for those who can't help but compare (and appropriately so, given the "spiritual sequel" billing), Happiness is a darkly hilarious movie, with most of the humor coming from the unspoken sadness and/or maliciousness of its desperate characters' interactions. Life During Wartime simply isn't funny, and isn't similarly "subtle." It's melodramatic, almost soap-opera-like in tone, with few of the wonderfully dissonant, squirm-in-your-chair moments that made Solondz' '90s works so entertaining (and so fun to show to the uninitiated). It often feels like we're being hit over the head with the "purpose" of each character in Wartime, rather than letting their actions / words simply speak for themselves as it was in Happiness.

This might have been a somewhat OK movie if it had been a fresh start with no baggage from Solondz' masterwork. Obviously, it's hard for any director / producer / screenwriter to escape from their widely-beloved past works if they choose to do something different. But in this case, Solondz actually *chose* to bring that baggage along, and dares fans of the original to make comparisons (as is immediately evident from even the opening scene and credits to anyone who remembers Happiness). I'm not sure if this was a cynical effort on the part of Solondz-- who has had documented troubles getting funding for his 00s movies-- to cash in on the relatively small Happiness fanbase, giving them a movie that they "have to see," even though these two films ultimately have very little in common.

Solondz' more recent work in general has been disappointing to me, but his misguided effort to "continue" Happiness has been by far the biggest and most bitter disappointment yet, failing to add anything new, interesting or even tone-appropriate to the universe he wants us to revisit. I desperately hope he's done making "spiritual sequels" now, and will have something really new to say (hopefully as funny as his old stuff) when his next project rolls around.

Todd Solondz is unique and so are his films. He forces you to look through an angle that we systematically ignore. There is an element of tenderness that permeates the darkest of corners and compassion emerges, limpid, clear even rational. This is, if possible, a sequel to his masterful "Happiness" The pain is still palpable but there is a hint of hope, China or not China. "I don't care about freedom or democracy, I care about my dad" Yes, I hear you kid. In the midst of it all, I hear you. Added bonuses: Cieran Hids as a scary, powerful presence. Allison Janney, one of the best American actresses working today. Charlotte Rampling makes an appearance as a sort of escapee from an erotic nightmare and don't you dare ignore or let this film pass you by. Todd Solondz is a great, startling American poet.

A sort of sequel to Happiness(with most of the characters returning, albeit all recast, aged and... well, not matured), this picks up years after, and we see how Trish deals with the events of it, and meet Joy again(and she's taken a turn for the... stranger, now haunted by Andy, and otherwise not offering that much to this... don't get me started on Helen, who in a single scene merely reiterates her schtick from the original). Some of the scenes feel like they don't really need to be there, and sans credits, this is only 89 minutes long. With that said, this is still a nice piece by Solondz, and a decent "fix" for anyone else who enjoy his work. The philosophy this time deals with forgiveness, what is natural, why do some people do bad things(is it genetic), and comments on excessive fear(xeno- and homophobia) as being irrational. Humorous material focuses on the idea of "normal", nothing in this is ever idyllic in spite of the appearance of such, perversity, terrorism, and life in suburbia is yet again seen as being terrible. It's again black comedy, with snarky, harsh lines. The dialog is sharp and the acting is good. This comes off as very "real", the camera lets it all hang out. Shots sometimes last a while, and tension and awkwardness(intentional) arises from this(this is content more than presentation). There is a lot of overt sexuality, a little disturbing content and strong language as well as brief nudity in this. I recommend this to fans of Todd and indies in general. 7/10

"Happiness" was a funny yet very disturbing film. It's a very good film but one I can't see too often since some scenes are too weird. I wanted to see the follow up to that film, hoping it would be as funny, sad and chilling. "Life during Wartime" is quite weak. Having Charlotte Rampling in a small part did not help. The story took a long time to get going and then it was over too soon without creating any interest in the characters nor the storyline.

All the actors in the new film were much paler than the ones playing the same parts in "Happiness". The only appealing one was Shirley Henderson playing Joy (even if I missed Jane Adams dearly). The one playing Trish was nowhere near as good as the original actress, but the part was not as funny either.

Why make a follow up movie without the original cast? It would have been great to see them having aged like their characters. I suppose the actors from Happiness didn't like the script for "Life during Wartime"!

Todd Solondz comes back one more time resuming stories about joy and sorrows, forgives, forgets and regrets, the same gears that leaded his previous works as Welcome To Dollhouse (1995), Happiness (1998) and Palindromes (2004), in one way or another.

Here the story surrounds the life of a kid and the members of his family that are trying to discover the meanings of when and how could people achieve the joy or the happiness in their lives just forgiving or forgetting something harmful enough to be forgotten or forgiven.

As always, Solondz plays with dark humor all the time just to relieve the weight of complex dramatic themes, giving the right balance needed to make real hard life discussions into something as ordinary as a breakfast.

The characters are well constructed and it's interesting the way they lead with the relationships between them. All the time 2 characters are discussing in a table or with something between them, using it like a place where they can put and throw - or sometimes hide - all their problems and differences but at the same time blocking and impeding the reaching of each other, like a battlefield.

Words are like guns and watching those characters hurting each other and using each other words like bullets is shocking because that's what we are, and we are responsible for that. Life During Wartime deals with complex themes, sometimes is a difficult movie for the raw, bitter and impacting dialogs, but you can't run away from them forever.

As another one said: "Todd Solondz is unique and so are his films. He forces you to look through an angle that we systematically ignore".

Great work once again.

Dark, funny and tragic, "Life During Wartime" is like a satire of one of those dysfunctional family dramedies. But by creating characters that are just outside of arm's reach and having them say things that are more tragic than funny, it's more like it is a family dramedy than a satire of one.

Joy (Shirley Henderson) is married to a drug addict and phone sex addict and she thinks she's going to cure him, instead she's off wandering this world on her own. Trish (Allison Janney) has finally found a "normal" guy and is raising her kids to forget about their pedophile father. I remember enjoying Todd Solondz's previous films "Welcome to the Dollhouse", "Storytelling" and "Happiness" (which this is some kind of bizarre continuation of – some of the same characters, none of the same actors), but this one was presented to me as if these are somewhat "normal" people but they don't do anything or say anything in normal ways.

It is funny. To some people, it's funny in a laugh-out-loud way because the filmmaker is daring enough to have the characters say things which normal people wouldn't say. To other people, it's funny because it's a real representation of how dark the world is. To me it's funny in an awkward and uncomfortable way since these "normal" characters are saying such inappropriate things.

I was left on the outside looking in because these "normal" characters are not normal, they are weird, bizarre and off-putting. Solondz was trying to walk that very thin line of laughing at the characters but caring about them at the same time and going through the same emotional turmoil that they are. I ended up on the wrong side of that line, where I nervously laughed at them occasionally but didn't care about them at all.

It's not really straight-out funny enough to be a satire, but then again, Solondz doesn't really do anything straight. This is good writing and good filmmaking where subtle hints at the characters' fantasies become their reality, which become an indictment of the society that we live in – "Life During Wartime." As the saying goes, it's funny because it's true, but the characters are just a little too far from normal to be true.

Solondz gives us a sequel to his classic Happiness. Happiness was a film of great hilarity, unexpected warmth, and uncomfortable darkness. The first thing to note here is that everyone has been recast. It's been recast to such an extent that half the fun is for those familiar with Happiness to identify the characters. Some are easily recognizable and some are completely different. Phillip Seymour Hoffman is now a slim black guy. The characters are moving on from their lives in the original, but it still feels disconnected. This is probably why Solondz did major recasting, so we can appreciate this on its own. Unfortunately the acting isn't up there with Happiness. Everyone seems desperate to channel the awkward humor, resulting in a film that seems like parody at times. Baker added heart as well as tragedy to his twisted character, Hinds feels a bit more dark and menacing. There could have been so much dramatic intensity, with the children, now older, confronting their father. Instead it settles for quirky moments that mention politics and refer to pedophiles as terrorists. An interesting film for those wanting to see a progression in the characters, but you can expect to be confused and kind of wanting to just watch Happiness again.

No nudity. No violence. A tiny bit of strong language. And a lot of taboo subjects no other director dares speak about. "Life during War Time" is about subjects like pedophelia, terrorism, suicide and divorce. All these subjects are interwoven into a cheery and twisted mix, only director Todd Solondz could have come up with, because he is known to speak about taboos no other director dares speak about. Only suited for an arthouse audience who is openminded to hear jokes about gay sex, pedophelia and terrorism, often lumped together in one sentence.

At first sight there really doesnt seem to be a recognizable storyline, although a jewish dysfunctional family is the core of this story.This jewish family has been plagued by pedophelia, divorce and insanity. But the story about this twisted and broken jewish family is only the backdrop for one particular question that gets asked the most: can one forgive another person, no matter how bad he or she has hurt you? And if so, can one also forgive a pedophile or a terrorist? Hard to imagine seeing these questions being answered in a dark comedy? Start watching "Life during War Time"...

The Jordan sisters re-emerge in this loose follow up to Todd Solange's 1998 darkly comic meditation on pedophilia, Happiness. Played by different actresses in the same glum state of existence they continue to bemoan their situation and wrestle with forgiveness while the men simply off themselves.

Auteur Solange, one of the more imaginative and challenging filmmakers of the 90s strays little from the off beat and audacious style excellently realized in his second feature, Welcome to the Doll House (95). Fresh and innovative he pushed the envelope even further with some quirky topics and set pieces in Happiness and Storytelling. With "Wartime" the subtle shock and awe is both predictable and dull this time around, the entire cast in its usual state of funk, sprinkled with decent performances (Allison Janney, Ciaran Hinds) and in the case of man eater Charlotte Rampling one that begs further screen time.

'Happiness' was such a unique and special film when it came along. It was brutally honest and so real it was a film that sticks with you forever. It was the 90s and 'Happiness' was in keeping within the cultural ethos of the day.

'Life During Wartime' tries to recreate that magic, but its just falls flat. Solondz seeks to make sequels without the original casts. Its doesn't work here. Characters in this film and like caricatures of the 'Happiness' cast. The Bill Maplewood character is way way off. I lust don't see teh point

In many ways this is a half ass attempt at a sequel. The writing is lazy, The cast is uninspired. 'Weiner Dog', Solondz's sequel to his masterpiece 'Welcome to teh Dollhouse' was awful as well. I suppose for his die hard fans, the sequels were acceptable. To me they are both a waste of time and money.

I am not too happy about Writer-Director Todd Solondz' sequel to his 1998 critically acclaimed 1998 indie film "Happiness". "Life During Wartime" should have been titled "Life During Boretime" because its mind-numbing melancholy tone is a bunch of borea borea! Sure "Happiness" was also melancholy, but it was thought-provoking and compelling; no matter how dreary and repugnant the characters were. "Life During Wartime" plays around with the same characters as the original- sisters Joy, Trish, Helen; pedophile Bill Maplewood straight out of jail; son Billy now in college; plus some new characters including Timmy who is Billy's younger brother and also son of Father Bill. The major shift here is that all these characters are portrayed by other actors; no Phillip Seymour Hoffman, or Cynthia Stevenson, or even Dylan Baker, which all deserved Oscar nominations for their "Happiness" performances. In "Life During Wartime"- Joy is still miserable, Trish is still hypocritical, and Helen is still self-centered. Maplewood is like a dead man walking throughout most of the film, and not like a rehabilitated pedophile striving to change his past ways. The actors do their best, but it was really a battle for them to invoke any authenticity to their characters in their wartime duty because of Solondz' sloppy writing and direction. I am a big fan of Solondz' "Welcome to the Dollhouse" and "Happiness", and included those movies as two of my favorites of the 1990's. But since the millennium, Solondz' archetype style of developing gloomy and despicable characters has run it course; and too many disturbed and sad characters in recent past Solondz' film creations have become a nuisance instead of a revelation. In other words, his Toddatales have become continuous dead-end narratives, instead of insightful character studies. Now some of the performances in "Life During Wartime" were noteworthy including Allison Janney as Trish, Ally Sheedy as Helen, and Paul Reubens as Joy dumpee- Andy. Yes, there is a Pee-Wee sighting in "Life During Wartime" and it's a good one. Reubens' supporting performance as Andy might just very well be the life of "Life During Wartime". OK, I know I need to get a life but I also know that you don't need to get a "Life During Wartime". **Needs Improvement

It's a sorta sequel to director Todd Solondz's 1998 film Happiness and the Jordan sisters. The characters are recast. Joy Jordan (Shirley Henderson) marries Allen Mellencamp (Michael K. Williams) who makes obscene calls and she is haunted by Andy (Paul Reubens). Bill Maplewood (Ciarán Hinds) is let out of prison serving for child molestation. His ex-wife Trish Jordan (Allison Janney) has to deal with her son Timmy finding out about Bill's crime. Bill starts dating Jacqueline (Charlotte Rampling). Trish is set to marry 'normal' Harvey Wiener (Michael Lerner). Helen Jordan (Ally Sheedy) is a successful screenwriter in California.

Recasting everybody has the weird sense of an alternate universe. It makes this a weirdly unreal movie. I can't say that the actors are inferior but they are different. I'm not a big fan of Happiness and this doesn't change that. I can't find any rooting interest in any of these characters. Some are downright kill worthy. The discussion between Trish and Timmy is so pathetic that it's almost funny. At least, it was memorable.