LIFE DURING WARTIME
US, 2009, 96 minutes, Colour.
Shirley Henderson, Allison Janney, Ally Sheedy, Ciaran Hinds, Michael Lerner, Chris Marquette, Renee Taylor, Charlotte Rampling.
Directed by Todd Solontz.
Despite the framing of the credits in old-fashioned mode and typeface, this is a very contemporary story that demands attention for its themes of family, relationships and a theme that has shockingly emerged in recent decades, the sexual abuse of children. This was all present in writer-director, Todd Solontz's striking film of 1998, Happiness. He takes up the characters from that film but casts an entirely different group of actors for the parts, not necessarily following strict chronology but, rather, speculating on what has happened to these characters.
Todd Solontz is not a mainstream film-maker. He draws us into US suburbia - and we are unsure where he is taking us as his dialogue blends complete naturalism with some surrealist touches, some fantasy and touches of the absurd.
It is the same in Life During Wartime, opening with a tearful conversation in a restaurant between Shirely Henderson and Michael Kenneth Williams where it emerges he has profound psychosexual problems. Then, cut to a sunny outdoors Florida and a meal conversation between Allison Janney and Michael Lerner. The scenes seem quite disparate but come together clearly: three sisters (Henderson, Janney and Ally Sheedy; Janney's family and the revelation that the father is in jail for pedophilia. However, we see him released, involved in an exploitative episode with an older, fading woman) Charlotte Rampling.
1.The work of Todd Solontz? Offbeat, characters and family? Ordinary and different? Contemporary problems, difficulties?
2.US suburbia, New Jersey, Florida, the houses, restaurants, motels, college?
3.The Jewish background, the talk, references to Israel, the bar mitzvah, the terrorists?
4.The score, the songs (Matchmaker…)?
5.Themes of forgiveness, the title, the old-fashioned credits?
6.The introduction to Joy and Allen? The tears, both, talk, the discovery of the restaurant, the waiter, the gift, Joy and her tears, the waiter and her spitting? Allen and his problems, Joy leaving? The impact on Allen? Joy going to her mother, her mother and the Jewish style, reprimanding her, welcoming her? The meal with Trish, the insinuations, support yet criticism? The visit to Helen, the effect, Helen and advice, wanting a job in Los Angeles? The phone call and her return? Allen dead?
7.Joy, the sleepwalking, arriving at the café, the hallucination with Andy, the memories, the reality, his death? His reappearance? His insulting her, the apology? The sexual attack? Allen and his final appearance? His love, wanting Joy to kill herself, the wording of the note, her wanting to live? Her hallucination during the bar mitzvah, rushing out?
8.Joy being the youngest, the disapproval of her marriage, to a black man, with his problems, her job with prisoners, her relationship with her family, her future?
9.Trish and her being bright, the meal with Harvey, the effect, touching her elbow, trying to explain it to Tim? Tim and the truth, the talk, the issue of paedophiles? Chloe, her pills, karaoke lessons? Trish and her own taking of pills? The affair with Harvey, wanting to marry, wanting her children’s approval? Harvey and his son coming to the meal, Mark and his autism, Asperger’s syndrome? The talk, the hopes?
10.Tim, with his mother, talking about sexual assault, the speech for his bar mitzvah, his being bullied at school, his room, the planes, missing his father? The meal, wanting to talk with Harvey, his questions, Harvey putting his arm on him, Tim screaming – as programmed?
11.The issues of forgiving and forgetting, Tim and his ideas, Harvey and his talk, wanting to know the reasons for Tim’s attacking him? Talking with Mark? Tim and his being sorry about Harvey, the bar mitzvah, being an adult, his responsibility?
12.Harvey and his story, thirty-five years of marriage, divorce, Trish, the relationship, not wanting to fail, his love for Mark and moving for him? The dinner, the fatal touch, Mark and his nervousness, his ideas about China? The discussion about forgiveness, the end with Tim?
13.Helen, separated from the family, living in Los Angeles, writing poetry, celebrity, writing a screenplay and its fulfilment, with Joy, the advice, not having any, ultra-sensitive, Joy’s remark about Keanu, the apology? Her outburst, Joy wanting to get a job, stay? Her presence at the bar mitzvah?
14.Chloe, her age, the pills, karaoke, the baby carrots being speared?
15.The father in jail, the gum drops, his being released, his continued dream, the blurred image of his son? Calling in at home, looking at the photographs? Seeing the woman in the bar, the sexual relationship, taking her money? Saying he was straight? Going to the college, the discussions with Billy, his appearance at the end?
16.The woman at the bar, her age, the questions, reading characters, the sexual encounter, the money, low self-image?
17.The women’s mother, Jewish, strident?
18.The bar mitzvah, all together, happy, tense? Tim and the final talk about forgiveness with Mark? His wanting his father?
