A pathological family is on the frontlines in “Life During Wartime.” Indie provocateur Todd Solondz turns his lethal lens on the company of pitiful casualties.
This follow-up to his ironically-titled “Happiness” is either a deadly dark comedy or a deadpan tragedy about child molestation, suicide and isolation. It revisits many of the same characters and topics as the original 1998 piece. But they have been projected out into the future using a new cast of actors to emphasize their progression.
Both films have a weird, wry disdain for these characters; even an abruptly compassionate climax cannot erase that. Director-writer Solondz, also know for “Welcome to the Dollhouse,” appears to relish mocking or torturing his clueless puppets — including children — in worlds full of perversion and scorn.
It’s good that there are serious filmmakers with the chutzpah to make edgy, truth-telling pictures about the deluded, desperate people that certainly do exist — somewhere. But it can be more of an ordeal than an enriching artistic experience to hang out with them for an hour and a half.
If you go
‘Life During Wartime’
2 out of 5 Stars
Stars: Allison Janney, Ally Sheedy, Shirley Henderson, Ciaran Hinds
Director: Todd Solondz
Not rated. Very adult content.
Running Time: 96 minutes
The story revolves around a contemporary American family with three adult sisters. Somehow, it manages to be even more Russian/depressing than Anton Chekhov’s “Three Sisters,” the obvious theatrical archetype it references. The morose Joy (Shirley Henderson) is literally haunted by the ghost of a suicidal boyfriend (played by Paul Reubens, aka Pee-wee Herman). At the same time, she is trying to decide whether or not to stay with her current man (“The Wire’s” Michael Kenneth Williams), a druggy pervert with good intentions.
Joy suffers from the condescension of her equally dysfunctional sisters, the brittle Helen (Ally Sheedy) and the oblivious Trish (Allison Janney). The plot centers most on Trish’s nuclear family, or what’s left of it.
Trish’s husband Bill (Ciaran Hinds) has just been released from prison after serving time for his unnatural predilection for underage boys. Their sons Timmy (Dylan Riley Snyder), about to have his bar mitzvah, and college-aged Billy (Chris Marquette) are beginning to face their father’s legacy. Meanwhile, the desperately lonely Trish has a new relationship with Harvey (Michael Lerner). It seems doomed by the denial and sublimated pain of everyone around them.
The performances are self-consciously underplayed, adding to the movie’s ambiguous tone. Apparently, Solondz must have instructed his ensemble to act as if they are zombies shell-shocked, like the audience, by “Wartime.”
