- Film Review
- Reviewed By Damon Wise
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2 out of 5
Despite an interesting and eclectic cast, its unlikely that anyone other than fans of Todd Solondz (Welcome to the Dollhouse, Happiness) will be satisfied by this offering from the taboo-breaking American indie director. Abe (Jordan Gelber) is a lonely, nerdish man-child who lives with his mother (Mia Farrow) and father (Christopher Walken), who's also his boss. Miranda (Selma Blair) is a medicated prisoner of childhood also living back at home, the victim of her own mysterious self-destructive past. They meet, Abe proposes, and after a sudden courtship Miranda begins to think: "Well, why not?" What follows is a dry, deadpan comedy, grimly shot in cheap video hues in not-so-well-to-do New York backwaters, that has everything but laughs. The characters run the gamut from near-comatose to shrill, all of them awful, and what seems to aspire to being a modern comedy of manners is simply a mean-spirited satire on such close but paradoxically unloving families.
Plot Summary
A socially inept man still lives with his parents, and blames them for his failings. Desperate to turn his life around, he spontaneously asks a stranger to marry him. However, her acceptance leaves him terrified of an uncertain future, and he retreats into a bizarre fantasy world. Drama, starring Justin Bartha, Selma Blair, Christopher Walken and Mia Farrow.
Cast and crew
Cast
- Abe
- Jordan Gelber
- Miranda (formerly "Vi")
- Selma Blair
- Richard
- Justin Bartha
- Phyllis
- Mia Farrow
- Marie
- Donna Murphy
- Jackie
- Christopher Walken
- Justin
- Zachary Booth
- Mahmoud
- Aasif Mandvi
- Jiminy
- Tyler Maynard
- Lori
- Mary Joy
- Arnie
- Peter McRobbie
Crew
- Director
- Todd Solondz
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