There’s no trailer yet to Todd Solondz’s quasi-sorta-sequel to “Happiness,” his latest effort which has screened in Venice and is titled, “Life During Wartime,” but we do now have this extended mini-documentary or European TV segment that does show many clips from the film including scenes with Allison Janey, Shirley Henderson, Paul Reubens, Michael Lerner, and Ally Sheedy among others.
The conceit of this one is old characters from the Solondz milieu — “Happiness,” “Welcome To The Dollhouse” — and casting entirely new actors to play the parts (who’s who? We made an extensive rundown here).
“Life During Wartime,” was once seemingly titled “Forgiveness,” but maybe the change was due to the fact that this was nailing it on the head. From all accounts, the picture seems to force the viewer to confront the viewer’s sense of forgiveness in the face of heinous acts like pedophilia and other anti-social/demented/ sociopathic behavior, but at the same time, leaving all indictment, absolution or judgement to the audience.
Soldondz basically says as much in an interview with the Guardian as to why he revisited these characters. “Pedophilia is a monstrous affliction that we all, on a reflexive level, reject and loathe. And yet, although this [character, originally played by Dylan Barker] may be a monster, he still has a heart that beats. That’s the idea that I was exploring on ‘Happiness,’ and exploration is very different from sympathy. But,” he added, “I figured I needed to clarify that a little.”
Reviews of “Life During Wartime” have been surprisingly good too. One of our favorite thoughts that puts Solondz’s career in context for many people is this one over at Hollywood Elsehwere. “After ‘Palindromes,’ I had given up on Todd Solondz,” a friend wrote to the blogger, echoing a sentiment that most fans and movie critics also felt, the director had lost his way or just navel gazed far too deeply. “So I went into ‘Life During Wartime’ thinking that when an artist runs out of ideas he revisits one of his previous successes. I was wrong. Wartime is rich…Solondz has matured and become more introspective in the eleven years since.”
That’s really exactly what we wanted to hear so we anticipate this film all the more when we see it next week at TIFF.