Hi, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab...
Okay... so it’s not easy to make a palindrome. “Madam, I’m Adam” is small potatoes. Let’s see if our man in Chi-town thinks Todd Solondz had more luck with his PALINDROMES than I had with mine:
Hey, Harry. Capone in Chicago here. When I mentioned to people that I was going to see the latest film from writer-director Todd Solondz, the response was universally, Todd who? Of course, most of you know who he is, or you probably wouldn't be reading this site or this review, but the public at large probably didn't make it to Solondz's controversial, difficult-to-swallow works like HAPPINESS and STORYTELLING. Sometimes, when I was trying to explain to people who Solondz is, I'd inevitably end up saying, "He's the guy that directed WELCOME TO THE DOLLHOUSE. That usually triggered the spark that lead to recognition. It's not unheard of that a director is so readily identified by one film, but being identified with one's first film is perhaps more rare. So imagine my shock when, in the opening shots of his latest film PALINDROMES, Solondz presents us with the funeral of DOLLHOUSE's central misfit Dawn Wiener, who we are told committed suicide because she couldn't handle the anguish after being date raped. Solondz literally brutalizes and burys his past, and he does so in his most poetic and searing work to date. His familiar themes of alienated souls and the hidden ugliness behind the suburban facade are firmly in place. But the center point of PALINDROMES is clearly religion and the misguided faith that often fuels religious ferver. If this film manages to become even a little bit popular, the pundits will stomp on it mightily.
At Dawn's funeral, we meet her cousin, 13-year-old Aviva Victor, who makes it clear early on that she wants to be a mother as soon as possible. PALINDROMES is a segmented film, divided into chapter featuring the names of the new characters in Aviva's life. Although it's not as critical to the plot as one might think, Aviva is played by different actors in each chapter. The actors include two women, four older girls, one young girl, and one 12-year-old boy, of varying ages, sizes, and races. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to Solondz's choice of actors, but I'm guessing that's not the case. My gut feeling was that the age of actress playing Aviva was tied to how old she was feeling at that moment of her life. Even if that guess is true, it doesn't account for the race or weight variances. I think ultimately if you just watch the film and don't try second guessing its motives, you'll enjoy it a lot more.
In an effort to have a baby, Aviva sleeps with the young son of a close friend of her parents (Richard Masur and Ellen Barkin, in absolutely one of her best performances ever as an overprotective mother). He knocks her up, and Aviva's mother insists that she get an abortion. In classic Solondz fashion, he rarely misses a chance to make us squirm in our seats. The image of the young girl having sex is repeated throughout the film. When Aviva and her mother go to the abortion clinic, there are protesters holding some incredibly graphic poster featuring dead babies. Unlike some of the scenes in, say, STORYTELLING, these sequences aren't played for shock value (okay, maybe a little). Rather, Solondz prefers we meditate on these images for a spell. He is one of the great filmmakers at throwing a spotlight on character we almost never see portrayed on the screen. Would Kevin Bacon have dared to play a child molester in THE WOODSMAN if it hadn't been for Dylan Baker's brave performance in Solondz's HAPPINESS? Maybe, maybe not. Certainly, Baker wasn't the first actor to play a pedophile on screen, but he's the first one I can remember actually being drawn as a fully-realized person.
During Aviva's abortion, something goes wrong and it turns out she will never be able to have kids as a result. Her parents decide not to tell her this bit of news, and soon after Aviva's anger toward her folks results in her running away from home. On the road, she sleeps with me to get pregnant again, obviously with no results. She eventually stumbles upon the home of Mama and Bo Sunshine (Debra Monk and Walter Bobbie), who run a home for what I can only describe as misfit children, with physical, mental or psychological handicaps. This chapter of the film is by far the longest and most compelling, and it speaks most directly to the religious aspects of the screenplay. The Sunshine home seems like a joyous, Christian-based place to be, the kids get along and have even formed a singing group that plays church functions and other gatherings that need a little Sunshine. But brewing beneath the house (literally) is something sinister, and for the first time in the film, Aviva feels genuine fear and questions her decision to get pregnant. Solondz does a superior job building a slow, simmering suspense as Aviva's life gets more and more frightening.
PALINDROMES, like most of Solondz's films sticks in your craw when you first see it but eventually that feeling moves into your head. He has this uncanny ability to produce works that refuse to leave your brain for days. There are parts of his other films I can recall with shocking clarity, and the same holds true for this one. The man knows just the right (or wrong) buttons to push. More importantly, he knows how to make you think, even if the things he wants you thinking about are almost too painful to contemplate.
Capone
Excellent work, man.
"Moriarty" out.
