Search - Happiness on DVD

MPAA Rating: NR Content Advisory: Adult Situations, Strong Sexual Content, Not For Children, Profanity Movie Release: 1998 DVD Release: 04/27/1999 Format: DVD - Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV Audio Tracks: English Subtitles: English, French, Spanish SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 2 hrs 19 mins Studio: Lions Gate Members Wishing: 14 Genres: Comedy Drama, Black Comedy, Ensemble Film See Also: Happiness

After his 1995 breakthrough, Welcome to the Dollhouse, director Todd Solondz was courted by a number of studios to make a big-budget film with top stars. Instead, he chose to make this aggressively dark comedy-drama of perversions and twisted lives. Andy Kornbluth (Jon Lovitz) explodes with anger after rejection in a restaurant from Joy Jordan (Jane Adams), one of a trio of middle-class New Jersey sisters. Joy's sister Trish (Cynthia Stevenson), a housewife with three kids, is married to psychiatrist Bill (Dylan Baker), who counsels the lonely, overweight Allen (Philip Seymour Hoffman). Allen is obsessed with Joy's other sister, the successful poet Helen (Lara Flynn Boyle), all the while ignoring the attentions of his seemingly sweet yet overweight neighbor Kristina (Camryn Manheim). Bill has fantasies of turning an assault rifle on families in a park, masturbates to teen magazine photos, and develops an unhealthy interest in a classmate of his 11-year-old son, Billy (Rufus Read). After a telephone sales job, Joy moves on to substitute teach at an adult education class, where she falls prey to the advances of an insensitive cabdriver, Vlad (Jared Harris). Allen's series of obscene phone calls to Helen come to an end when she challenges him to come next door and carry out his sexual threats. Meanwhile, the sisters' parents, Lenny and Mona Jordan (Ben Gazzara and Louise Lasser), find their marriage collapsing after 40 years. Lenny has sparked the interest of divorcée Diane Freed (Elizabeth Ashley), but he actually would prefer to be alone. The path to happiness, it seems, is littered with dreams, despair, and abnormalities. Winner of the International Critics' prize at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival, Happiness met with much controversy both in pre-production and upon its release, as chronicled in producer Christine Vachon's book -Shooting to Kill. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

Jane Adams - Joy Jordan
Dylan Baker - Bill Maplewood
Lara Flynn Boyle - Helen Jordan
Ben Gazzara - Lenny Jordan
Jared Harris - Vlad
Philip Seymour Hoffman - Allen

Arguably one of the most disturbing black comedies ever committed to film, Todd Solondz's Happiness finds its way to DVD courtesy of Trimark Home Video in a markedly bare-bones package that gives a fairly decent presentation of the film, though not much more. The crisp and sharp image, presented letterboxed at 1.85:1, bears little evidence of artifacting or film grain and is the highlight of the disc. Offering lush greens, vivid blues, and bright yellows in addition to attractive flesh tones, the image remains true to the cinematographer's vision, complementing the garish suburban color scheme. The audio is presented in English Dolby Surround, and while adequate and fitting considering the film consists mostly of dialogue and has little need for a complex auditory scheme, it still might have fared well with a Dolby Digital mix. The large and easy-to-read yellow subtitles are offered in English, French, or Spanish and are fairly unintrusive though they are presented within the letterboxed image.
The gaudily colorful but blocky and plain title menu fits well with the film and is easy to navigate, with "Special Features" including brief filmographies of cast and crew, a trailer for the film, and an Easter egg in the form of trailers for three other Trimark Home Video releases. Overall this is a decent presentation of the film, though a director's commentary offering Solondz's insight into this bleak interpretation of suburban life might have been an insightful treat that would have compensated for some of the disc's shortcomings. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide