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By
WADE GOSSETT
You sort of suspect that a
film called "Happiness" will be about anything
but. You really don't even have to know that its a
Todd Solondz film.
Solondz's 1998 cruelly ironic opus to trying to
find happiness in a messy world is unsettling to
say the least. It's full of characters that are
very unpleasant people, people you wouldn't want
to know let alone spend any time with. Disparate
stories are connected through three sisters: One
is poet who's having a hard time coming to terms
with success, the other a lonely woman obsessed
with finding a good man, and the other a seemingly
happy suburbanite with the perfect family --
except that her husband is a pedophile. David
Lynch couldn't have done better at scratching the
surface of well-tended American lawns only to find
them crawling with predatory, disgusting bugs. And
like a Lynch movie, watching "Happiness" is an
uncomfortable but compelling experience, with
several pitch-perfect performances -- stand-outs
are Dylan Baker, Lara Flynn Boyle and the always
fascinating Philip Seymour Hoffman.
While ostensibly released under the Lions Gate's
Signature Series imprimatur, "Happiness" this
version is not a significant improvement over the
original DVD release: It features the same
non-anamorphic widescreen transfer (and it's
obvious that there was ample room for improvement)
and the same extra features (a trailer and
filmographies) as the 1999 DVD version. Note that
"Happiness" is unrated (to his credit Solondz
refused to cut his film according to the MPAA's
dictates in order to get an R rating).
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