Happiness – Signature Series Edition
Picture: C Sound: C+ Extras: D Film: B
Todd
Solondz has been one of the boldest filmmakers of his generation, and slowly
taking apart bad assumptions about life originating in bad films beginning in
the 1980s have been a specialty. Happiness (1998) is a step after his
noteworthy debut film, Welcome to the
Dollhouse. As his titles always
telegraph, simplicity applied to life too literally is a very, very bad thing.
One wife
(Cynthia Stevenson) has a house and money, a steady income, thanks to her hard
working husband. Too bad he (Dylan
Baker, in a bold performance) is a run of the mill, laid-back, casual
pedophile! Her sister (Laura Flynn
Boyle) is intrigued by an obscene phone caller (Philip Seymour Hoffman). Sister Joy (Jane Adams) is her own depressed wreck
and their father (Ben Gazarra) is amusingly in the clouds about all of it,
despite being smart, down-to-earth, and from the old school.
Of
course, the ultimate common denominator is that these are all characters with
varying degrees of sexual dysfunction, but this is done as a sometimes ironic
comedy. The film always sparks outrage
whenever it is discussed or people see it for the first time, but that seems
more having to do with denial and suppression, the very reason the problems
exist in the film to begin with. Solondz
is constantly stating that norms undermine people throughout his work so far,
continuing with his recent Storytelling.
The
transfer is a full screen version that is a step backwards over the 1.85 X 1
version previously released. This looks
like a cut-down version of that transfer, so it is recommended that you search
out the letterboxed copy prior to this.
The sound on both is the same Dolby Digital 2.0 with Pro Logic surrounds
that the last disc had, without changing that sound to match the framing
change. Both DVDs have the same bare
cast/crew info and not much else, so the extras are nada on either copy.
Despite
my “un-happiness” with the picture downgrade, I really liked what this film
did, so watch it if you cannot get the previous version. Too few people have seen it and a compromised
version is better than none at all, but I still protest the change and wonder
why Solondz approved it.
- Nicholas Sheffo
