PALINDROMES
US, 2004, 95 minutes, Colour.
Ellen Barkin, Richard Masur, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Debra Monk.
Directed by Todd Solondz.
Palindromes is another film from the bizarre imagination of writer-director Todd Solondz. In the mid-90s Solondz was introduced with Welcome to the Dollhouse, a portrait of a dysfunctional family and a young adolescent girl and her ambitions. He followed it with the excellent Happiness, a very demanding film with a whole range of themes, especially of a sexual nature. He also made Storytelling.
This film is not quite as good as the previous films. Perhaps it had a small budget and was made in something of a rush. However, it indicates enough of Solondz’s themes to take its place in his canon of movies.
He uses the title of the film both for the names of some of the characters, especially his central character Aviva, but also for the structure of the film. It ends where it began – after a journey from the east coast of the United States into the Midwest and back again.
One of the interesting aspects of the film and Solondz’s imagination is that he has a different actress to play Aviva in all the different sections of the film. It is a surprise to find at first that she is a young black child who then changes into a white teenager. However, the late-teenage Aviva is a very large black girl, with a very polite and sweet soft voice. At the end of the film, as a way of reviewing our understanding of Aviva, he shows a collage of each of the actresses who portrays her. (Of significance, one of the adult Avivas is a cameo by Jennifer Jason Leigh.)
The film is also structured in chapters with the names of various characters shown and illustrated with an exaggerated birthday card colour and look. These chapters are the steps on the journey of Aviva, especially with her desire to be pregnant, her attempts to achieve this with a rather sex-preoccupied young man, the pressure on her from her ambitious mother to have an abortion, the abortion and its consequences with her running away from home, finding refuge with Mama Sunshine and a whole household full of handicapped people. The film also highlights the issue of abortion – the pressure on the adolescent by a mother who had an abortion herself and takes this as the norm. It shows the abortion clinic with the protesters outside, it also shows the doctor and the staff performing the abortion – and the aftermath with Mama Sunshine’s husband being a vigilante and hiring people to kill the doctor. The irony of this is that the killer is the same man, the driver who picked up Aviva on the way.
The film comes to some kind of resolution – especially with the desire of Aviva to have children, not knowing that, because of the abortion and the subsequent operation and the hysterectomy, she is unable to become pregnant. There is a good cast including Ellen Barkin as her dominant mother and Richard Masur as the father.
1.The work of Todd Solondz, offbeat, both serious and comic, emphasising parody and the ludicrous, deadpan dialogue?
2.The opening video, the style of the film, New Jersey, the west, interiors and exteriors? The score and the songs?
3.The title, the structure of the film, names with palindromes? T.S. Eliot’s quote of coming back to the beginning and knowing the place for the first time?
4.The structure and the episodes, the titles and cards, the colours? The names, persons and personalities? The brevity of the episodes?
5.The film’s focus on Aviva, a palindrome? The range of different actresses portraying Aviva? The effect? Aviva as individual, universal character? Black and white, all of the United States?
6.The prologue: the card about Dawn, the service, the speech about her failures, the deadpan remarks about her lack of success, piano-playing, obesity…?
7.Aviva and her comparing herself with Dawn, Missy and her comments, discussions with her mother, her mother assuring her that she was not like Dawn – despite some of the similarities? Her reassuring her? Aviva and her wanting babies at all cost? The picture on the wall – changing with each change of actress?
8.The family going to the party, Aviva going up to Judah’s room, Judah and his abruptness to his parents, the sex photos and posters in his room, the pornographic movie, he and Aviva watching it, the discussions about sex, Aviva wanting the baby, the rapid experience? The aftermath?
9.Aviva and her pregnancy, wanting the baby, her mother and her attitudes, the domination and pressurising of Aviva? Not letting her father come in to argue with her? Her going to the abortion clinic, Dr Fleischer? and the staff, the anti-abortion protesters outside, their prayer, falling on their knees? The operation, its failure, her hysterectomy? The mother and her cry that she would never have grandchildren – after telling the story of her own first abortion and its repercussions for her life, calling the aborted child Henry? Aviva calling her aborted child Henrietta?
10.Aviva and running away, the encounter with Mark, the drive, getting into the truck, sitting with Earl, the motel, the sexual encounter, Earl leaving her stranded? Her calling herself Henrietta?
11.The walk in the woods, becoming lost, seeing the small boat, sailing down the river, on shore? Aviva as the big black girl? With the soft and polite voice? Being found by Peter Paul?
12.Momma Sunshine and her household, in herself, always cheery, her husband, the table, the range of kids, their handicaps, illnesses? Peter Paul’s explanation? The meal, Aviva feeling herself welcomed? Their forming the Sunshine Choir, the songs and dances, Aviva taking part? Peter Paul taking her to the foetus disposal dump? The effect on her? Dr Dan and examining her, concluding that she was a prostitute? Dr Dan?, his arrival, singing his song, the anti-abortionist campaign, the discussions with Earl and with Momma Sunshine’s husband? Fleischer as the target?
13.Aviva and her return home, the palindrome structure of the film? With Earl, the motel again, the sexual encounter, saying his name was Bob? His going to the abortion clinic, shooting Dr Fleischer, killing the girl? His going – and the later hearing that Momma Sunshine’s husband was indicted?
14.Aviva back home, sending out the invitations, wanting to send one to Momma Sunshine and the household? The discussions about Mark and his being a paedophile? Missy and the abduction? Aviva and her talking with her mother? Her genial father?
15.Judah, changing his name to Otto, lying on the bed, their continued discussions, the sexual encounter? Aviva wanting a baby?
16.The collage of all the actresses who portrayed Aviva – with the young black child saying she wanted a baby?
17.The portrait of Aviva’s parents, the domination of her mother, her quiet father, her mother’s story about her own abortion, pressurising her daughter, allegedly wanting the best things for Aviva, driving her away from home?
18.Themes of life, parody, the bizarre, violence, the desire to have babies?
