Your life will be changed after watching this film. You will think about movies and people in a different way after seeing this film because you have never seen any film like it before. This isn’t a movie for everyone I suppose, but for those willing to challenge their way of thinking this film is a must.
The story follows three New Jersey sisters Joy (Jane Adams, MUMFORD), Helen (Lara Flynn Boyle, TV’s PRACTICE, MEN IN BLACK II) and Trish (HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS). Joy is a hippie/ wanna-be-singer/ slacker, who doesn't have much luck with relationships even when she is the one breaking up with someone, as we see when she breaks the heart of the fat man named Andy (Jon Lovitz, CITY SLICKERS II). Her sisters worry about her after she quits her job “to make a difference” as a strikebreaker at the local adult education center. This new job leads to her getting involved in a dangerous relationship with a Russian thief named Vlad (Jared Harris, Richard Harris’ son, MR. DEEDS).
Helen is a beautiful, but awfully shallow, published poet, who tries to strike up a relationship with an obscene phone-caller named Allen (Philip Seymour Hoffman, MAGNOLIA, TWISTER). In a side story, Hoffman’s over-weight neighbor Kristina (Camryn Manheim, TV’s THE PRACTICE) desperately tries to make a connection with him while covering up a dark secret. Trish is an ultra-conservative, brutally unfeeling housewife, who is married to psychologist Bill (Dylan Baker, THE CELL), who is a closet pedophile. In another sub-story, the sisters’ father (Ben Gazzara, BIG LEBOWSKI) decides to leave their mother (Louise Lasser, MYSTERY MEN) (but not divorce her) because he wants to be alone.
The film challenges the way we think about these characters, which most films would write off as one-dimensional villains. Director Todd Solondz, who made the wonderful WELCOME TO THE DOLLHOUSE, makes us identify with them through understanding that they want what we all want, but seek it in morally apprehensible ways. Solondz handles the material with pitch black humor. However, the most arresting part about the film is its tenderness toward its sad and lonely characters. In dealing with these common human emotions, we are forced to see the humanity in people who society desperately wants to label "monsters."
The performances are exceptional, especially from Baker and Hoffman. It will be hard for me to look at Baker in any other film without remembering his brave performance here. His obsession with little boys is like an addiction. As his compulsion grows stronger, he pushes his actions further and further until he crosses the moral line and molests his son's Little League friend. But Solondz challenges us to think further about the character and his actions in a heartfelt conversation between Bill and his son Timmy (Justin Elvin) when a father must explain to his son why he committed such terrible acts. Hoffman's Allen is a overweigh recluse who walls himself up in his apartment and can only communicate with women by unanimously calling them on the phone. Hoffman crafts a character who sinks into a shell and can't find words when his fantasies and realities come together in various ways.
The movie had me doubled over in laughter at times and in disbelief at others. And all in all it had me thinking. It may be tough to find because Blockbuster and Hollywood won’t carry it, but it’s worth the hunt if you like revolutionary cinema.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
