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PALINDROMES Send This Review to a Friend
Showcased at the 2004 New York Film Festival and now getting a commercial release, “Palindromes” by writer-director Todd Solondz (“Happinnes” and “Welcome to the Dollhouse”) is an oddity, a film that satirizes family life and anti-abortion activists while trying to make some serious points wrapped in outrageous situations. His work is at once interesting and off-putting. The jabs are too diffuse and weird to engage beyond superficial levels.
Solondz tries the ploy of having different actresses play the young woman in trouble with a pregnancy. The effect is confusing rather than clever, as there seems to be no reason other than being different. Yes, it could be to show the extent to which the problem is one not confined to a particular type family.
But the device is clumsy here, unlike its brilliant use by Luis Buñuel, who cast two women playing the same role in “That Obscure Object of Desire.” The cast for “Palindromes” includes Ellen Barkin, Stephen Adly Guirgis, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Richard Masur and Debra Monk.
The film is probably worth seeing for Solondz fans, or those who will be intrigued by the subject matter and the effort to do something adventurous. A Wellspring release.
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