Happiness | | Cast : | Jane Adams (II), Jon Lovitz, Philip Seymour Hoffman | | Director : | Todd Solondz | | Studio : | Vidmark/Trimark | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen | | Released Date : | October 16, 1998 | | DVD Released Date : | April 27, 1999 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), French (Subtitled), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), English (Original Language) | | Audience Rating : | Unrated | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | August 24, 2005 | | Summary | Todd Solondz's generally worthless freakshow of a movie | Content
 | Todd Solondz is an undeniably talented filmmaker, with an ear for dialogue that rivals with the best. I haven't seen his most recent film PALINDROMES yet, but his 2001 film STORYTELLING, for me, proved that he could be genuinely challenging and provocative, making a two-part film that explored ideas about truth and art, and whether art can ever really contain truth. In many ways, it was Solondz striking back at his critics. STORYTELLING was a film with thematic depth that still managed to maintain that shocking edge that characterized this film and his 1995 WELCOME TO THE DOLLHOUSE; that's why, of his first three films, I consider STORYTELLING to be the best of them.
As for HAPPINESS...well, for all its occasional scenes of sensitive acting and writing, and for all its occasionally effective shock scenes (enough to earn the movie an extra star from me), HAPPINESS strikes me as little more than a generally worthless freakshow of a movie. It's as if Solondz decided to put his mind toward creating as shocking and disgusting a bunch of characters as possible, placing them in everyday settings, filming the various stories in as innocent-looking a style as possible (the set designs and bright color schemes seem right out of a '60s family TV show or something), and calling the whole thing his singularly harsh vision of the darkness underlying suburbia. But I never bought for a second that this was the work of someone who was serious about exploring characters or motivations, or exploring what could lead to such shocking behavior in the suburbs. No, in HAPPINESS, Todd Solondz is simply trying to shock you as much as possible---and apparently it worked well enough that people fell for it and considered it "edgy" and "brilliant." It may be edgy and brilliant after all; but it's also worthless as either black comedy or a harsh look at the depravity that lurks underneath the placid veneer of suburban existence. Call me a prude if you must, but I still found Solondz's misanthropy much more convincing in the superior WELCOME TO THE DOLLHOUSE. Skip this one. |
| Rating | | | Date | August 17, 2005 | | Summary | A Magnificent Cornucopia of Perverts | Content
| A pederast, crank caller, and sundry desperate men and women of various stripes inhabit this offbeat film that explores rather complicated, and definitely not pretty or perfect, characters with normal-to-odd-to-truly-bizarre sexual pecadillos. The author decided at the offset to go places other films don't dare to go, and succeeded, overall. The lines never fail to entertain and provoke thought at every turn. If you appreciate dark rather shocking unconventional humor, this is the film for you. It will not annoy, but will bring fresh ideas, new situations, new plot devices, and characters you have never seen before. Recommended. |
| Rating | | | Date | August 02, 2005 | | Summary | Quality | Content
| Hmmm. Great movie, obviously. Some have complained about the picture quality on the DVD, but I didn't find it all that terrible. Granted, it's a little dark - but that seems to suit the movie's locations and cinematography reasonably well, and the movie isn't exactly visually-driven anyway. In short - the movie could look better, but the DVD is hardly unwatchable. |
| Rating | | | Date | July 30, 2005 | | Summary | Dark lives, difficult material and a paradoxically watchable unwatchable film | Content
| I'm not really sure what the writer/director wants us to take away. I rarely feel that way after a film. This, however, is a hard, hard, hard film to watch. Here it is in a nutshell: Interlocking stories of people who are deeply miserable or harboring secrets, who all want to connect and BE happy, but just can't seem to fit in. And maybe that's the point--that none of us fully fit our ideal of happiness, that happiness is just a moment here or there and that it passes and our dark human condition won't be covered up for long. I'm not so cynical as to think joy and happiness are impossible. (I'm pretty darn happy a good deal of the time despite the occasional blows of life) This film, however, makes you wonder if your own life is undermined by what's going on in the life of people around you. In this film, the clean-cut "family guy" is a pedophile who, bit by bit, loses control and takes his desires beyond fantasy/masturbation to reality/rape. The character who thinks she has a perfect life is living a lie and doesn't know it until her world crashes down on her. The older couple are splitting up, and the man has become numb, so lacking in true feeling that sex is meaningless and the act of salting his food becomes a supremely nihilistic statement. The hopeful, wounded waif keeps being rejected at every turn, becoming the scapegoat for the misery of those around her. Rejection in all forms abounds. Pain in hideous variety. Horrors in assorted flavors. And you can't look away thought something in you says, "I shouldn't see this. Do I have to see this? I want to see something PRETTY RIGHT NOW, PLEASE!"
Camryn Mannheim is oddly touching as a woman whose misery and isolation make her flip out at the moment of an unwanted and uninvited human connection. Phillip Seymour Hoffman plays yet another misfit who can't make his life work. Jane Addams looks like a breeze could knock her over, she's so fragile. The pedophile makes you want to run criminal searches on all the adult males in your neighborhood who seem so "nice, quiet, hard-working."It's unrelenting.
Watch this movie if you can empathize with an array of futile searches for happiness. Be prepared to be slapped in the face by the underbelly of several lives. I gave it four stars because it was masterfully done, not because I "really liked it"--because this is not a film you can like. Why then? Because it was impossible for me to look away or to turn it off and not know how it ended. Because I kept hoping for some ray of light to shine on these damaged people. If you think you're brave enough, see this. Happiness is rivetting, but oh-so horrible.
And tell me if that last converation, those last uttered words don't leave you chilled to the center of your soul.
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| Rating | | | Date | July 24, 2005 | | Summary | Twisted and totally gripping; very overlooked | Content
| This movie isn't for everyone, but it you like independent film and can handle a look inside the dark side, give it a try. It has everything to capture the audience with pure freakiness--masturbating crank callers, a teen trying to learn how to masturbate and asking for advice, a pedophilic father, a woman who cut someone up and put him in the freezer, and that's just scratching the surface. I'll admit that at times I didn't know where the movie was going, but I was always interested in learning more about the characters' sick, twisted, and intertwined lives. Give this a try if you are adventurous and can handle a dark, dark, dark comedy. |
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