Life During Wartime

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.

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.

As a big fan of foremost Happiness and Storytelling, I'm very disillusioned about the fact that Todd Solondz may never make great films like those again. This was a disappointment, but not exactly a shock after the gloom of Palindromes.

I'm not sure if this is really supposed to be a sequel to Happiness in the normal sense, but yes, a lot of the characters from that one are back. Sadly Solondz has turned Joy from a half dysfunctional "loser" to a freak, and every scene with her is pretty unbearable. The dad from the first film has also changed a lot, but that makes sense seeing how he's been in prison for years when the film starts.

Palindromes sort of drowned in gloom and repulsion. LDW isn't quite the same but it's still bleak, and often creepy. At times it borders to psychological thriller.

I have to respect Solondz for making a philosophical effort, but if there was a specific point with the story, I didn't quite get it. There's the subject of fear and hysteria in the U.S all over, but other than that, I didn't get that much out of it. All in all it was like a (expectedly) weirdish film with a lot of darkness and absurdity. Happiness and Storytelling were dark but also very funny and balanced with a sort of pleasantness that I just can't see here. It's like a long nightmare.

Before Palindromes Solondz was to me possibly the greatest living director. I REALLY hope he either gets back to his old form or tries out something new that works better.

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.

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.