TJE 7/13 – Happiness (1998)

So I've watched my first Todd Solondz film. I knew the director by reputation, but hadn't braved his work until now, because I was always a little wary of him. Solondz is the creator of very, very black comedies about dysfunctional domestic relationships, sexual deviancies, and all kinds of controversial material. In "Happiness," his second film, the main characters include a man with perverse sexual fantasies who makes anonymous, sexually explicit phone calls to unsuspecting women, and a pedophile who likes young boys and has detailed discussions of sexual matters with his own eleven year-old son. Are you cringing yet?

From the very first scene, Solondz insists on the audience's discomfort. We see a man and a woman played by Jon Lovitz and Jane Adams seated together at a restaurant. They exchange empty pleasantries, but it is obvious that the man is extremely upset and the woman is very tense. The conversation goes on, becoming more strained by the second. Eventually it comes out that they are a couple who have just broken up, and the conversation takes an ugly turn from banal to vicious. For the first third of the film or so, "Happiness" is a string of these horrible conversations, one after another. The pervert, Allen (Philip Seymour Hoffman), has a session with his therapist, Bill Maplewood (Dylan Baker), who ignores him. Maplewood then sees his therapist, and never quite admits that he's a pedophile, which we learn immediately afterwards. The woman from the restaurant, Joy, discusses the breakup with her sister Trish (Cynthia Stevenson), whose well-intentioned pep-talk reveals how pathetic she thinks Joy is. Allen fails to strike up a conversation with Helen (Lara Flynn Boyle), the neighbor he has been fantasizing about, while they are in the elevator together. Maplewood and his son Billy (Rufus Read) have a frank talk about the mechanics of ejaculation. Lenny (Ben Gazzara) leaves Mona (Louise Lasser), his wife of forty years, but insists that they are not getting divorced.

Some of the content here is downright disturbing. "Happiness" was given an NC-17 rating, mostly for a couple of semi-explicit masturbation scenes. Nearly all the actual sex and the rest of the controversial stuff is kept safely offscreen, but plenty is implied and alluded to. The dialogue by itself is extremely explicit, detailing rapes and molestations and lurid sexual fantasies that become very difficult to sit through. Worse are the attitudes of the characters, who show little remorse or self-awareness of how vile and terrible their behavior is. But after introducing us to this collection of screwed-up, miserable people, "Happiness" slowly reveals that it's after more than just the audience's shock and disdain. Just when you think that you couldn't be more disgusted with Allen, or more horrified by Dr. Maplewood, Solondz goes and humanizes them. Many of the stories in "Happiness" conclude in a strangely touching and poignant fashion, in spite of all the cynicism and meanness that preceded them. You may find, that in spite of whatever moral judgments you may make about the characters, you sympathize with them in the end.

This is due in large part to the performances, which are difficult and impressive. "Happiness" was one of the films that brought Philip Seymour Hoffman to prominence in the late 90s. As Allen he is utterly repulsive, a leering, heavy breathing, physically unkempt creep who you want to keep a distance from instinctively. However, his desperation and his loneliness come through, and there's the sense that when you get away from his sexual problems, he may actually be a good guy somewhere underneath. Maybe even better is the performance of Dylan Baker, who plays Dr. Maplewood with such awful likeability, in some scenes you actually want him to get away with the unthinkable. Baker is one of those actors who seems to be everywhere, but he rarely plays anything with real substance. This is probably the best role he ever had. The women in the cast don't get nearly as much juicy material to work with, but Jane Adams is a standout as the hapless Joy. She plays about the most conventionally normal character in the cast, and she's a mess. Camryn Manheim and Jared Harris also appear in smaller, but important parts.

And what about Todd Solondz? He certainly has a distinctive style, which is low budget, but enough to place his characters in a slightly heightened, surreal version of reality which is very heavy on the irony. The score frequently sounds like it's been lifted from a saccharine 90s family movie, and many scenes take place in cheerfully lit suburban homes and apartments, to contrast with all the perversity and discomfort of the actual content. 90% of what makes "Happiness" a comedy is this malevolent glee that Solondz seems to take in juxtaposing the normal and comforting with the abnormal and the deeply upsetting. For this reason, I don't think "Happiness" will work for everyone. Sometimes it's too obvious about its intentions. But it worked for me.
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