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Directed By
Todd Solondz
Written By:
Todd Solondz
Cast:
Dylan Baker, Cynthia Stevenson, Lara Flynn Boyle, Jane Adams, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ben Gazzara, Louise Lasser, Jared Harris, Jon Lovitz, Camryn Manheim, Elizabeth Ashley, Marla Maples, Rufus Read
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Happiness (1998)
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Movie Review by Jarrod
July 31st, 2008
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'Happiness' begins with a somber date between Andy (Jon Lovitz) and Joy (Jane Adams); they are breaking up, and the reasons are unclear; Joy apparently initiated it, and Andy suspects it is largely because of his nerdy appearance; he tells her that he bought her something, and pulls out an antique ashtray, he explains its value to her, and she gladly accepts it. Then, he suddenly snatches it away from her and verbally lacerates her; his words shock her with their cruelty; he tells her that she is "sh*t". We learn that Joy has heard this before, in kinder terms, from her sister, Trish (Cynthia Stevenson), and the rest of her family, who believe that she is always going to be a failure, that she will never have a successful career or relationship. Joy is an aspiring songwriter, but feels her compositions are of bad quality and that no one would ever want to hear them. To say she lacks self-confidence is an understatement.
Trish is married to a psychiatrist, William Maplewood (Dylan Baker), and they have two sons, Billy (Rufus Read) and Timmy (Justin Elvin). Trish is a pampered housewife, and is cognizant of that fact. One of William's patients is Allen (Phillip Seymour Hoffman), a pathetic sad-sack who dials random numbers from the phone book and makes prank calls. He fears women, but fantasizes about his neighbor, Helen (Lara Flynn Boyle), who happens to Trish's other sister; she is a writer of tawdry books, and at one point, wishes she had been raped as a child so that she could better understand what that experience may have been like. Allen masturbates frequently and gets drunk; pestered by Kristina (Camryn Manheim), another tenant in his apartment building.
William has his own psychiatrist, and is a pedophile, unable to control his distorted sexual impulses. He buys a boys' magazine at a gas stations and jerks off to it in the backseat of his car. He is an extremely creepy man, and is played as such by Baker, in an extraordinary performance. William and Billy have frank discussions about sexual topics, the first of which deals with ejaculation; Billy wants to be able to come, and asks his father for advice. It seems that Billy's singular ambition in life is to have an orgasm.
Do parents and their kids actually have such conversations? The candor with which William speaks to Billy is initially amusing, the way he describes certain things, but it ultimately takes on a more disturbing veneer, as Billy wonders about the size of William's penis, and William tells him width is more important than length, and Billy mentions a classmate, Ronald Farber, who claims his penis is eleven inches long. William has not had sex with Trish for at least a period of weeks, perhaps even months. He is no longer aroused by her. He eyes one of the players on Billy's baseball team, Johnny Grasso, whose father Joe worries that his son might be gay.
Johnny spends the night with Billy, and William sprinkles some mysterious white powder on Johnny's food; later, we see Johnny telling his mother that he is ill, and that there was blood in his most recent bowel movement. This implies to his doctor and to Joe that he was likely anally raped. The horror continues, as William pays a visit to the home of Ronald Farber, whom Billy has informed him is left alone by his parents as they vacation in Europe. We are not shown what happens there, but we can figure it out easily enough. The cops eventually arrive to question William, and Joe threatens him. There is then a painful and devastating scene where William explains to Billy what he did to Johnny and Ronald, and why he did it, and Billy asks him if he would do the same to him.
This scene represents some of Todd Solondz's best writing, brilliant in its honesty and depth, leaving us to ponder the real motive behind Billy's tears; is it because of the terrible crimes his father has confessed to, or is it because he feels rejected and hurt by his father's comments, after William says he would not sodomize Billy, but instead may only jerk off. While this movie contains many interlocking stories, some are more compelling than others.
I really liked Camryn Manheim, as the shy and sexually awkward Kristina, who bonds with Allen, and tells him the truth behind the death of Pedro the doorman. Adams is fantastic as Joy, sympathetic because of her chronically bad luck and poor choices. She takes a job teaching English to immigrants and refugees; her students hate her, except for the Russian thief Vlad (Jared Harris), with whom she has a one-night stand.
Notable also are Mona (Louise Lasser) and Lenny (Ben Gazzara), Joy's parents, ready to split after 40 years of matrimony. Lenny simply does not love anybody anymore, and Mona enters a state of depression. Solondz has crafted a dark, mature, and intelligent film, with moments of warmth and sincerity, stark and uncomfortable humor, accompanied by perceptive, hard-hitting, character-based drama, and even some bittersweet romance. Not quite as good as Welcome to the Dollhouse, but excellent stuff nonetheless.
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