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Palindromes (2005)
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Movie Review by Nick 
April 29th, 2005
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PALINDROMES, the latest film by Todd Solondz, tells the story of thirteen year old Aviva (she spells it backwards) Victor, a young girl obsessed with becoming a mother. A seemingly innocent and common adolescent fantasy; Aviva, however, is no ordinary thirteen year old girl. She goes on a Holy Grail sized quest to find someone to impregnate her and help her realize her dream of motherhood.
Todd Solondz is no stranger to bringing distressingly real issues into his films in a warped light and PALINDROMES is no exception. Like Bill Maplewood, the pedophile in HAPPINESS whose despicable actions deserved punishment of the most gruesome sort-- yet, for some bizarre reason we found ourselves feeling sorry for him-- PALINDROMES is chock full of people I normally like to pretend do not exist, such as pedophiles and fundamentalist Christians (and no, I'm not equating the two). Yet again, as was the case with Bill Maplewood, I found myself sympathizing with the sort of individuals that I generally abhor. In an attempt to garner sympathy from the audience in this instance, Solondz employs an unusual method to portray Aviva. Rather than use one actress to play the girl, the director chose to use two women (including a great job by Jennifer Jason Leigh), four young girls aged thirteen to fourteen, one twelve year old boy and a six year old girl, creating a wholly sympathetic character. Unfortunately, I feel this effect backfires as the changes were distracting and Solondz is talented enough to gain our sympathy sans gimmicks.
Many people will wonder what is wrong with Todd Solondz, bringing issues like teen pregnancy, abortion and religion the forefront in such a real yet jolly manner. This leads me to speculate: if there is something wrong with him, what is wrong with me? The throbbing hangover I still suffer from my ten years of Catholic school makes me feel guilty, but damnit I enjoy the wholly twisted, deeply disturbing and offensively real stories that this pioneering filmmaker tells. While PALINDROMES may not be my favorite Todd Solondz project, I did enjoy the effort and it is certainly worth a look for any Solondz fan or anyone with an adventurous taste in film.
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