Director Todd Solondz is a director of films that are for an audience with extremely open minds. He is not afraid to push buttons, take chances or offend. He is also very cynical and sarcastic, which to some is off putting.
PALINDROMES is his most experimental film and the film in which he has taken the most chances. At the beginning, he brings back characters from his first movie WELCOME TO THE DOLLHOUSE and then runs them through the wringer for the entire picture.
The main character of DOLLHOUSE, Dawn Weiner, has committed suicide and her snobby sister has told their young cousin Aviva that she is destined to turn out just like Dawn, a pathetic loser who will be unloved. Aviva’s mother Joyce (Ellen Barkin, THE BIG EASY) reassures her 14-year-old daughter that she will be fine and that her and her father will always love her. At this point Aviva declares that she wants to have lots and lots of babies so that she will always have someone to love. So Aviva hooks up with horny Judah (Robert Agri), the son of a family friend, so she can get pregnant.
When she’s successful, Joyce pressures her to have an abortion calling the fetus a tumor. Joyce obviously loves her daughter and wants the best for her, but she is at the liberal extreme of the abortion debate and insensitive to what Aviva wants. Things occur and Aviva runs away from home meeting up with a shady trucker who calls himself Joe (Stephen Adly Guirgis, 2004’s JAILBAIT) and then with the extreme Christian Mother Sunshine (Debra Monk, THE DEVIL’S ADVOCATE), who has taken in a dozen unwanted kids who Aviva’s mother would have wanted to abort. Mama Sunshine is also a caring mother who loves her children, but we soon learn that she is on the other end of the abortion debate calling for the assassination of abortion doctors.
Solondz does an interesting thing with the film and debates for and against abortion, skewering both extremes at the same time. It’s what makes the film so good. However, the dividing part of the film is the other theme — the idea that we do not change and that because of biology we are who we are at six and sixty.
To artistically represent this concept, Solondz cast eight different actors of various sizes, colors, ages and even genders to play Aviva. It’s a bold decision that makes the film more thought-provoking, but does drain a certain emotional power from the film. Some of the younger actresses are better than others. Shayna Levine (TV’s ALL MY CHILDREN) shows the most range.
However, the most emotionally engaging and striking performance comes from Sharon Wilkins, who has had small parts in films like NATIONAL TREASURE, BAD BOYS II and MAID IN MANHATTAN. She is a grown black woman, who is very heavy, playing a 14-year-old girl who dresses in skimpy clothes. The image is shocking and really drives home Solondz’s point.
In an almost cameo-sized performance as Aviva, Jennifer Jason Leigh (THE HUDSUCKER PROXY) gets one of the best lines in the film, regarding pedophiles. I personally don’t agree with Solondz’s pessimistic view of how people cannot change, but he makes a solid argument. This is not a film for everyone, but it’s challenging, thought-provoking and intelligent. It also takes chances and for the most part succeeds extremely well. Solondz is one of the most daring, original and important director’s working today.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
