The two Todds – Messrs. Haynes and Solondz – have no end of fun with casting, that workaday process few other directors have bothered to deconstruct or trick with. Thus Palindromes, Mr. Solondz’ very fine 2004 picture featured eight different actors (of varying age, race and gender) as the film’s 13-year-old heroine.
By extension, we should not be surprised that this sequel to the director’s seminal Happiness features an entirely new cast. At the story’s dark heart, we find the Jordan sisters, including vulnerable Joy (Shirley Henderson), suburban “normal” Trish (Alison Janney) and self-absorbed Helen (Ally Sheedy).
The film, a collection of dark deeds and thoughts presented in dreamy longeurs and painful exchanges, starts as it means to go on. A mindblowing opening scene sees Joy listening to new love Allen (Michael Kenneth Williams from The Wire) insist that he has overcome drugs and perverted phone calls – except on Sundays. Her sister, Trish, meanwhile, is looking forward to a brand new life with Michael Lerner’s portly divorcee when her youngest son, Timmy, discovers that daddy is not actually dead, but in jail for child rape.
Like Happiness, Life During Wartime belongs to Bill Maplewood, the paedophile once essayed by Dylan Baker. This time around Hot Press favourite Ciaran Hinds has stepped into those shifty shoes with no little aplomb. His Bill, now released from prison, is a lost but devious, self-deluded soul. The viewer is granted access to his innermost machinations whether they like it or not; the effect is Messrs. Solondz and Hinds taking a bite out of your very soul and spitting back in your face.
As before, the director purposely de-dramatises the most ghastly material with lengthy exchanges and hypnotic pastoral interludes. Like little Timmy, it’s just too much for the audience to absorb but too shocking to ignore.