'Happiness': It's anything but

Pitch-black comedy confronts every taboo in the books

By Michael Fleeman, Associated Press entertainment writer

After the Cannes Film Festival, the future looked bright for "Happiness," the pitch-black comedy about the bleak underside of suburbia.

Despite its troubling subject, the film won critical raves and a festival prize, positioning it as a movie to watch this year.

"I certainly thought it was a film that would cause controversy and that people were going to be split on it," producer Christine Vachon said. "But it never occurred to me that what happened would happen. Suddenly, we were a little blind-sided."

October Films, which had financed the $2.5 million picture and which had been enthusiastic about it, abruptly backed out of distributing "Happiness," apparently under pressure from nervous officials at parent Universal Studios or Universal's owner, Canadian-based Seagram Co.

The content may have been too much for the corporate bosses. "Happiness" deals with rape, pedophilia, masturbation and murder. It was clearly destined for an NC-17 rating, which is considered box-office poison because it means a movie will not be shown in many multiplexes or advertised in some newspapers.

But there's a happy ending for "Happiness." The producers set up their own distribution outlet and the movie will now reach theaters Oct. 16.

But the experience raised questions about the fate of other edgy films -- particularly those that don't enjoy such critical support -- in this era of art-house studios being owned by publicly traded corporations such as Seagram, the Walt Disney Co., News Corp. and Viacom.

"It has a chilling effect on the decision-makers who might otherwise embrace interesting and provocative work, and now are shyer about doing it," said James Schamus, whose company, Good Machine, is releasing "Happiness" without a rating from the Motion Picture Association of America.

A spokeswoman for October said the studio would have no comment. Universal did not have an immediate response.

Todd Solondz, who also directed the critically acclaimed "Welcome to the Dollhouse" (1996), said he holds no grudges.

"These things happen," he said. "And in my case, in a certain sense, it worked out for the best... I only see the up, for me personally."

But for the industry, he said, "it's about the bottom line. If the movie turns out to be profitable, it will make it less difficult for other filmmakers with similar difficult subjects and taboo subject matter to get financing."

"Happiness" has already received a big boost from critics and audiences at influential film festivals. At Cannes last spring, it received the Critic's Prize. And last month at the Toronto Film Festival, it won the Metro Media Award, voted on by the 740 writers and critics attending the event.

"Happiness" is part of the darkening trend in independent films in recent years, with movies exploring such subjects as mass murder and sexual deviances, often in the context of a comedy. Among the current movies looking on the dark side are "Very Bad Things," "Jerry and Tom" and "Thursday."

But "Happiness" stands out.

The main character is Bill Maplewood (Dylan Baker), a therapist and a pedophile-rapist, and the story focuses on how people put on a happy public face while struggling with private turmoil.

There are Bill's deluded wife Trish (Cynthia Stevenson), his sexually confused son Billy (Rufus Read) and the wife's two sisters: a glamorous author, Helen (Lara Flynn Boyle), who is oddly attracted to an obscene phone caller, and the underachieving Joy (Jane Adams), who has a catastrophic love life. Added to the mix are the lonely, perverted apartment dweller Allen (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) and his neighbor Kristina (Camryn Manheim), who has something very awful in her refrigerator.

The idea for the movie began to take form as Solondz read an article about a Russian serial killer of children. "While you read about serial killers all the time, at the end of the long article they said that he had a wife and two children," Solondz recalled. "I just had to wonder: What does that mean?"

And, so, "Happiness" gives us Bill Maplewood, who would appear to have everything: a loving family, a nice home in the New Jersey suburbs, a respected career. Bill also is sexually attracted to young boys, including his son's school friends.

"I didn't want to make a movie about a pedophile. I'm not interested in pedophiles, per se," said Solondz. "I see it more as a device, a tool, to explore the issues that are of greater interest to me, which have to do with emotional connection and alienation."

There are no scenes of Maplewood acting on his sexual impulses. But the subject matter is handled in a disturbing fashion -- made all the more difficult with the scenes played out as comedy and tragedy, inviting the audience to sympathize with a pedophile.

"It's hard for me to separate what I find funny from what I am moved by, and I would find the movie unbearable if it lacks humor," said Solondz. "There is a certain kind of tension, and it's not a yuck-yuck sort of humor. ... And while there may be humor in the movie, I want to emphasize, for me, it's never a joke. It is all serious."

Photo by The Associated Press
Director Todd Solondz' new film, the ironically titled "Happiness," looks at the bleak underside of suburbia -- and deals with rape, pedophilia, masturbation and more along the way. When its distributor backed out, the film's producers arranged to get the movie to theaters.