HAPPINESS

US, 1998, 141 minutes, Colour.
Jane Adams, Jon Lovitz, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Dylan Baker, Lara Flynn Boyle, Justin Elvin, Cynthia Stevenson, Rufus Read, Louise Lasser, Ben Gazzara, Camryn Mannheim, Molly Shannon, Elizabeth Ashley.
Directed by Todd Solondz.

Happiness was a controversial film on its first release in the late 90s. It presented a picture of American suburbia, highly dysfunctional. It anticipated American Beauty by one year.

The film was written and directed by Todd Solondz, an eccentric director, focusing on human nature, its foibles, and how people miss out in their relationships. He had already made Welcome to the Doll House by this time. He then made films every few years, especially Life During Wartime in 2009. This took up the characters in Happiness ten years later but he employed an entirely different cast to portray these same characters and show what had happened in their lives. Happiness, being the first film, developing the characters quite strongly with excellent performances, is the stronger of the two films.

The title is ironic. It also implies with play on words a focus on male sexuality.

In fact, sexuality and relationships are to the fore in this film. Each of the characters has difficulties with personality and with their sexuality. The film focuses on Mona and Lenny, married for forty years (Louise Lasser and Ben Gazzara) and their three daughters. The eldest seems to be living an ordinary life in suburbia (Cynthia Stevenson) but her husband, Dylan Baker, a psychiatrist, has his own sexual obsessions, gives advice to his eleven-year-old son (Rufus Read) about sexuality and the experience of puberty. This becomes something of an obsession (in quite frank language and visuals) of the young boy. However, the father is also a paedophile, and the film is very strong in its presentation of his obsession, his behaviour – and his inability to change his way and repent of what he has done. Dylan Baker offers a complex performance, both antipathetic and momentarily sympathetic.

The next sister is played by Lara Flynn Boyle, a successful novelist with a book based on lies, allegedly autobiographical. She is brittle and cannot relate well to men. She encounters her neighbour, Philip Seymour Hoffman, who is also sexually obsessed and makes obscene phone calls.

The third daughter is played by Jane Adams, a lonely woman who has been made to feel a failure. In the opening scenes of the film, with Jon Lovitz, there seems to be a romantic atmosphere till the mood is completely changed and we see that she feels herself a failure as well as hearing of the suicide of the Lovitz character. Later she encounters a man in her English as a Second Language class and has a brief affair only to be disillusioned and he is asking her for money. In the meantime, Camryn Mannheim plays Philip Seymour Hoffman’s neighbour – and she has a story about sexual assault, killing and mutilating the man who assaulted her.

While the synopsis sounds grim, the film is very well written, insightful and challenging, and the performances are all excellent.

1. The impact of the film in its time, later? Awards?

2. The title, unhappiness, self-absorption? Sexual overtones?

3. The New Jersey situations, ordinary, homes, streets? Contrast with New York? Florida? The musical score, the range of songs, the classical music – with each character and with each event?

4. The blend of realism with satire? Serious and humorous? Black comedy?

5. The quality of the dialogue, the wit, clever? The ensemble performances?

6. The prologue, the introduction to Joy and Andy, the talk, the close-ups, crying, tension, relationships, Andy and the gift, taking it back from Joy, his abrupt change of tone? The phone call about his suicide? The people in the office trying to remember who he was? This introduction setting the tone of the film?

7. Allen and his story, sexuality, the link with going to Bill for therapy, and so the link with the family? His resolve to talk, the phone calls, his imagination, the crudity, masturbation, the envelope and the wall? His focus on Helen, his work at the office, failed relationships, sexuality? Imagining Helen – the scene in the elevator and her polite ignoring of him? Kristina, as the neighbour, her visits, his being drunk and ousting her? Her return, going out with him, eating and the ice cream, telling the story of Pedro, the flashbacks, her killing him and the mutilation? Their lying on the bed? Helen trying to fix him up with Joy? (And their being together in Life During Wartime.)

8. Kristina and her lack of self-confidence, her image, fat, eating, visiting Allen, the Pedro story, the appeal for money for the funeral, revisiting him, coming into the room, being ousted, going out, the date, telling the story, eating the ice cream? Her attitude towards sex, repulsion? Fate? The presentation of Pedro, the small man, widower, his attack on Kristina? This sequence overdone – or emphasising her loneliness?

9. Joy and Trish seen as losers, Helen and her superiority, busy? Their dinner at their parents’ house? Joy and her various jobs, leaving, the effect of Andy’s death, her tears? Getting the new job, teaching English as a Second Language, her awkwardness with the class, their wanting the previous teacher back? The strikers outside and insulting her? The encounter with Vlad, the taxi, his approach to her, going home, the sexual encounter, his singing You Light Up My Life? His absence from the class, the visit from his partner, her spitting on Joy, the partner having a black eye, Vlad’s violence? His stealing her CD player and guitar? Asking for money, her giving it to him? Saying that she would be more at home with the strikers? The sympathetic fellow teacher and their discussions?

10. Vlad, the Russian background, thief, pleasant, singing, sexual aggression, leaving, taking Joy’s possessions? His partner, the children, the household, the woman and her spitting, bruised? The money?

11. Helen and her writing, relationship with men, with celebrities? Allen’s phone calls and her puzzle? The lunch with Trish, ringing Allen? The failed relationship? Her parents and the others confiding in her but not in Trish?

12. Trish and her seeming to have everything, her happy life, the ironies in her cheerfulness? With Joy and with Helen, the secrets? Checking with them? The parents and the break-up? At home, the children, nice, her concern about Billy, the PTA meeting, her relationship with Bill? Johnny’s stay-over, his being sick? Her disciplining of Timmy and his leaving the table? Her not realising the truth about Bill, the graffiti on their house, her upset, leaving with the children, going to Florida?

13. Bill, his session with Allen, bored, imagining what he had to do, buying the magazines, masturbation? Going to the baseball, seeing Johnny, the infatuation, the stay-over, administering the drugs, taking him home after his being sick, the other boy – and the assaults off-screen? The father, his concern about his son, as effeminate? His gross attitude? The phone calls, the boy’s father insulting Bill? The police, the graffiti on the house, Billy asking him all the questions, his explanations about sexuality to Billy, puberty, encouraging him? Confessing that he could not change?

14. Themes of paedophilia, the reality, seeing the person committing the offences rather than just a name, the mental illness, psychological difficulties, the compulsion? His not showing remorse?

15. Billy, moody, eleven, preoccupied with sex, listening to the other boys in the class, his not achieving puberty, his experimentation? With Johnny, their friendship, thinking him girly, Ronald Farber and his situation and giving the information to his father? Bill’s advice, confiding in his father, the reaction to the graffiti, his asking his father and his father confessing? The final sexual achievement at the end?

16. Mona and Lenny, forty years married, arguing, the phone calls and secrets, the separation? Lenny and his just wanting to be free, by himself, play golf, no other woman? His encounter with Diane, her advances? Her illness? Lenny as a sullen man? But agreeable with his daughters? Mona, her desolation, talking with her daughters, going out, going to the estate agent, the glamorous woman, the divorcee, her breaking down and weeping?

17. Diane, her absent husband, advances towards Lenny, her illness?

18. The gallery of supporting characters and their contributing: the strikers outside the English as a Second Language Institute, Joy and her fellow office workers and their wondering who Andy was, the estate agent?

19. The finale, the reuniting of the daughters, the family? Hope or not?

20. Happiness, unhappiness, self-centredness, delusions, sex and libido, identity, relationships and loneliness, fantasy and acting out fantasies? American society and the 20th century?