Does anyone recall the hilarious funny black comedy called Happiness by Todd Solondz? (who also directed Storytelling and Welcome to the Dollhouse, the latter still on my to-see list)? I was eagerly looking forward to see his latest film, entitled Palindromes. This film is strange, wicked and absurd, but also tries to deal with heavy issues such as teenage pregnancy, child abuse and abortion. If you know even a tiny fraction of Solondz’s work, you’d see it coming that he has his own special, black humorous way of dealing with such taboo subjects.

Palindromes‘ main character is Aviva, a 13-year-old girl, desperate to get pregnant. When she finally becomes pregnant, her mother (an extremely sodden, soaking performance by Ellen Barkin) tries to convince her to get an abortion. Obviously, thanks (or due) to her mother’s convincing strategies and tactics, Aviva gets an abortion, runs away from home (calling herself Henrietta, after her unborn child) and ends up at a Christian cult house, led by a caring woman nick-named Momma Sunshine.

Solondz anxiously tries to fight American household sentimentality by enlarging to extremes. The way her mother confronts Aviva with the wish to get an abortion (for the sake of her own good), shows that her approach is nothing but a farce to see her own wishes granted. When her gynaecologist tells Aviva’s parents he also had to perform a hysterectomy, the first thing her mother cries out is she will never become a grandmother. It shows the absolute natural selfishness of people through a looking glass, even though they appear to be sincere and genuine. It also shows that people can be really helpfull, just as long as their own little world, needs and securities are not obstructed.

Solondz, also responsible for writing the screenplays for his films, makes clear that it is possible and imaginable to tell a story, regardless of who is playing the lead. It may sound weird, but Aviva is played by at least six different actresses throughout the film, the most remarkable version being played by an overweight tall black woman (although Aviva in her teenage years was introduced as a skinny white girl). This may cause a lot of confusion, since the first time Aviva calls herself Henrietta, she is all of a sudden played by the black actress. This may appear to be an artifice, but it is a metaphor for the many identities and personalities that may lie within one person.

This may not be a film appreciated by the masses, as it is rather confusing and black-humoured and maybe even slightly confrontational. Palindromes is not the home of the most stable characters imaginable. In some scenes they are able to totally change personality and occasionally even within the time span of one phrase, showing their true intentions. This emphasizes the complexity of the human kind, and Solondz tries to extract the true nature of people, by making them surrealistically honest and fake at the same time. Aviva’s mother and Momma Sunshine are perfect examples (and stereotypes) of advocates of fake, oppressing American family life.

Palindromes is full of intentional contradictions and has some very subtle yet direct one-liners. It may, however, not be to the liking of everybody and slows down on several occasions, but definitely is my type of film… Yummy!

Directed by: Todd Solondz
Starring: Rachel Corr (Aviva), Will Denton (Aviva), Hannah Freiman (Aviva), Jennifer Jason Leigh (Aviva), Valerie Shusterov (Aviva), Sharon Wilkins (Aviva) and Ellen Barkin (Joyce Victor)
Runtime: 100’
Release Dates: US: 15 April 2005, UK: 22 April 2005