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Happiness By Thom Denick HAPPINESS 1998 135 minutes, USA Directed by Todd Solondz Starring: Jane Adams, Jon Lovitz, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Dylan Baker "Happiness" is probably one of the most important films of 1998. However, its discussion of taboo topics also makes it one of the least likeable. "Happiness" follows the lives of about ten people who seem destined to have their lives intertwined. Child molestation, pre-teen masturbation, violent rape fantasies, no matter what the topic "Happiness" approaches, it doesn't hold anything back. Solondz has created a network of characters who feel real enough that even with the most terrible of sexual miscreants, we find ourselves able to identify with them. Perhaps this is the worst part of the film for many people, and why so many left the theater visibly shaken. One of the main characters, Bill Maplewood (played by Dylan Baker) is a "happily" married husband, father of two and a pedophile. The first seriously disturbing scene of the film shows Bill in a convenience store passing up Playboys for a young boy's magazine entitled "Kool." Bill buys the magazine runs out to the back of his car and proceeds to jerk off to its contents while mothers and children walk through the background. The scene is chilling, and presents a stark contrast to the relatively lighter love-life related humor which came before this turn in the film. It created a sense of disbelief among the audience. The film continues this mixture of taboo topics and a somewhat more standard pessimistic look at marriage and dating. No matter what the topic, Solondz manages to add a terrible, cynical element of humor to almost every scene. Which often leaves his audience in a state of hysterical laughter, but always with the thought, "Should I really be laughing at this?" Why do we need a film like this? Why should we all see a film like this? "Happiness" is important because it takes unspeakable parts of our society and humanizes and humorizes them at the same time. It's doubtful anyone seeing a screening of "Happiness" for the first time would leave unaffected. The film humanizes the most villified members of our society, sexual offenders. It takes away Hollywood's quick use of a serial rapist as an objective representative of the "evil" of society, and Solondz takes Bill Maplewood and says, "Here is your serial rapist." We see that he is like anyone we know, and in a way, at the end of the film we feel sorry for him, we feel sorry for what he had to endure at the hands of the people who hate him for what he has done. Roger Ebert makes mention in his review of "Happiness" that all the neighbors who live around a recently exposed serial killer or child molester, always report what a good person they seemed. He's right on the mark in identifying the reason Solondz made this film. When any of us close our eyes and picture a child molester or serial killer we picture a nightmare Charles Manson archetype when the truth is so much further from that image. Solondz's film explores and exploits this human weakness, our will to put blame on scapegoat images, and live in denial that our friends are too "normal" to do something like that. "Happiness" is a film about passion and pathetic lust. It is this lust of the taboo that eventually brings the fall of almost all of the characters at one point of the film or another. It's darkness extends to every corner of the character's lives. In the end Solondz shows that the only way to briefly escape the clutches of this overwhelming despair is through personal truths (Bill's painful honesty to his son), and minor victories (When Timmy, Bill's son, finally is able to come). Yes, "Happiness" is disturbing, and certainly not for everyone. But if you are looking for a film that will intellectually challenge you while entertaining you with its brilliant pessimistic humor, "Happiness" is worth a rent. Thom Denick is a junior at Ithaca College. |
