SPELL 'PALINDROMES' DISTURBING, UNCOMFORTABLE.Byline: Bob Strauss Film Critic TODD SOLONDZ movies are never comfortable. ``Happiness'' had its sympathetic pedophile pedophile Forensic psychiatry A person with pedophilia; there are an estimated 500,000 pedophiles in the world. See Child prostitution, Megan's law, Pedophilia. , ``Storytelling'' had its awful ethnic and family conflicts, and ``Welcome to the Dollhouse'' had geek A technically oriented person. It has typically implied a "nerdy" or "weird" personality, someone with limited social skills who likes to tinker with scientific or high-tech projects. The origin of the term dates back to the late 1800s. princess Dawn Wiener, among other upsetting elements. Solondz tackles his hot-button subjects with snide humor, but at the same time it rarely feels like Solondz is not committed to examining his films' issues and the emotional price his screwed-up characters pay for dealing with them. The writer-director's latest, ``Palindromes,'' takes on teen pregnancy and abortion, the former quite compassionately, the latter with a powerful disdain for both sides of the issue. But underlying the surface sensationalism sensationalism, in philosophy, the theory that there are no innate ideas and that knowledge is derived solely from the sense data of experience. The idea was discussed by Greek philosophers and is shown variously in the works of Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, George is an effort to question the very concept of ``choice,'' especially as young people might or might not be able to exercise it. That's provocative as far as Solondz takes it. And it no doubt would have been more so if his key artistic choice wasn't so distracting. Our central character, 13-year-old Aviva Victor, is played by seven different actors of various sizes, races, ages and, in one case, genders. Jennifer Jason Leigh and Sharon Wilkins are the two grown women who portray Aviva; the role's younger actors, whose ages range from 6 to 14, are all new to the job. Remarkably, Solondz gets a consistent character out of the numerous players. Still, the weirdness of the presentation blunts her trauma, and for the first time in a Solondz film, the movie's as well. Aviva is a sweet, love-hungry girl whose only goal is to have a baby. When she becomes pregnant, her suburban New Jersey parents (Ellen Barkin Ellen Rona Barkin (born April 16, 1954) is an Emmy Award-winning and Golden Globe Award-nominated American actress. Biography Early life Barkin was born in the Bronx, New York to a chemical salesman and a hospital administrator at Jamaica Hospital, and raised in and Richard Masur) sensibly insist on termination. Not about to be dissuaded from her dream, Aviva hits the road in search of new daddy material. Of course, the runaway's picaresque pic·a·resque adj. 1. Of or involving clever rogues or adventurers. 2. Of or relating to a genre of usually satiric prose fiction originating in Spain and depicting in realistic, often humorous detail the adventures of a roguish quest is filled with a typical Solondz gallery of needy freaks and cruel users. The main stop on Aviva's adventure is the Sunshine residence, where Mama (Debra Monk Debra Monk (born February 27, 1949) is a Tony Award-winning American actress, singer, and writer. Monk was born in Middletown, Ohio. She was voted "best personality" by graduating class at Wheaton High School in Silver Spring, Maryland. ) has turned a dozen or so special-needs foster children into a Jesus-praising pop band while the man of the house (Walter Bobbie) plots the assassination Assassination See also Murder. assassins Fanatical Moslem sect that smoked hashish and murdered Crusaders (11th—12th centuries). [Islamic Hist.: Brewer Note-Book, 52] Brutus conspirator and assassin of Julius Caesar. [Br. of abortion doctors. Needless to say, Aviva finds the man she pathetically mistakes for her soul mate. As always with Solondz, derisive de·ri·sive adj. Mocking; jeering. de·ri  sive·ly adv.de·ri humor runs right up to the edge of sheer contempt for many characters, then gleefully glee·ful adj. Full of jubilant delight; joyful. glee ful·ly adv.glee leaps over the line. Yet, amazingly enough, he works humane lines of poignance into many of them. Still, it often feels like he's taking easy shots at straw figures, even when you grant the fact that Solondz treats both sides of the right- to-life debate with fairly balanced disdain. When you consider the film's title, Aviva's many forms suggest that Solondz considers her emblematic of a general female, or even human, predicament when it comes to the need for love and the ubiquity of control. Although he pulls it off dramatically (no small feat), the gimmick doesn't do the story or its meaning much good. ``Sideways'' director Alexander Payne tackled similar subject matter with equally corrosive humor in his first movie, ``Citizen Ruth.'' Presented comparatively straight, Payne's pointed cultural jabs drew blood. ``Palindromes'' leaves us scratching our heads at what feels like an itchy itch·y adj. Having or causing an itching sensation. mosquito bite. Bob Strauss, (818) 713-3670 bob.strauss(at)dailynews.com PALINDROMES - Two and one half stars (Not rated: sex, violence, language) Starring: Ellen Barkin, Debra Monk, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Sharon Wilkins, Stephen Adly Guirgis Stephen Adly Guirgis is a playwright, actor, and teleplay writer. He is a member of the New York City LAByrinth Theater Company, whose other members include West End]], along with theaters in Australia, Norway, Finland, Chile, South Africa, and across the United States, such as . Director: Todd Solondz. Running time: 1 hr. 40 min. Playing: Town Center 5, Encino; Playhouse 7, Pasadena; Sunset 5, West Hollywood; Town Center 5, Irvine. In a nutshell: Another odd attack on middle-class values from the ``Storytelling'' director, made even odder than usual by the fact that six different actresses and one boy play his young heroine. |
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