Life During Wartime
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Todd Solondz
Shirley Henderson
Michael K. Williams
Roslyn Ruff
Stephen Macdougall
Meng Ai
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Follows a group of people struggling to find a place for themselves in an unpredictable and volatile world. The past haunts the present and imperils the future: ghosts circle and loom, trouble and console. The question of forgiveness and its limits threads throughout a series of intersecting love stories, offering clarity and possibly alternatives to the comforts of forgetting.
Director
Todd Solondz
Cast
Shirley Henderson
Michael K. Williams
Roslyn Ruff
Stephen Macdougall
Meng Ai
Ally Sheedy
Gaby Hoffmann
Rich Pecci
Gabriel Quilichini
![](https://prod-images.tcm.com/v5cache/TCM/Images/Dynamic/i80/paulreubens_cu_188x141_051220090313.jpg?imwidth=188&height=141)
Paul Reubens
Jean P. Rubio
Carmen M Colón
Ciarßn Hinds
Dylan Riley Snyder
Allison Janney
Rebecca Chiles
Emma Hinz
Charlotte Rampling
Renee Taylor
Christopher Marquette
Fernando Samalot
Michael Lerner
Crew
Rosi Acosta
Jessica Allen
Edgar Alvarez
Sara Alvarez
Victor M Andujar
Eddie Antunez
Jose A Arias
Juan Carlos Arvelo
Ken Bailey
Devendra Banhart
Devendra Banhart
Terry Banting
Aaron Barnett
John Barrett
Paul Bercovitch
Paul Berglund
Roshelle Berliner
Doug Bernheim
Eddie Berrios
Dana Bloder
Jerry Bock
Dominique Borrell
Darren Boyce
Steve Boyle
Ciara Brennan
Budesh Bridgepaul
Jill Broadfoot
Randy Brown
Richard Brown
Angel A Bula
Claudia Calderon
Jon Cameron
Stuart Campbell
Tim Carleton
Safak Shaun Cengiz
Rachel Chapman
Peter Clemence
Edward Cohen
Camille Collazo
Danielle Colli
Yvonne Collins
Oscar A Colom Cruz
Luis E Colon Arroyo
Francisco Cordero Malave
Antonio Correa
David Coulter
Kathryn Criston
Javier Cruzado
Wilmar Davila
Matteo De Cosmo
John Deblau
Carla Del Manzano
Noel Doyle
David Dustin
Soux Ellis
Fausto Espinosa
Luis R. Estrella
Bill Felker
Jorge Fernandez
Raul Ferrer
Dean Fester
Jeremy Fleishman
Rob Fletcher
Cameron Folan
Hilda Frontanes
Carlos Garcia
Gerald Garcia
Kurt W Gensmer
Catherine George
Rick Gilbert
Morning Glory
Luis Gonzalez
Mark Goodman
Juan Guallini
Elena Guede
Dave Halls
Elizabeth Hanley
Craig Hanson
Sheldon Harnick
Fred Helm
Pablo Segui Hernandez
Pete Hernandez
Charles Herzfeld
Anthony Hollier
Terry Hooper
Nelson Huertas
Bonita Huffman
Bryant Huffman
Frank Intorcia
Katalina Iturralde
Steven Jacobson
Axel Jaeger
Kemel Jamis
Loida Jeannot
Scott Jolstad
Matt Joyer
Luis Jurado
Rona Katz
Barbara Jean Kearney
Gayle Keller
Frank Ketchum
Thomas Kodros
Kip Konwiser
Sam Kretchmar
Brian Kring
Edward Lachman
Ben Laffin
Maureen Landa Mcgavin
Luis A Landrau
Tanya Lemke
Joe Lervold
Abimael Linares
Tere Lopez
Kim Maclachlan
Luis Edgardo Maldonado
Raul Marin
Steve Marion
Ricky Marquez
Peter Marshall
Brendan Mcfadden
David C Mckane
Beez Mckeever
Jim Mcmillan
Rita Medina Rodriguez
Aris Mejias
Esther Mejias
Jorge Mendoza
Nydia Mercedes
Kevin Messman
Benjamin Knox Miller
Liliana M Molina
Willie Montanez
Fausto Montero
Michael Montes
Jim Morgan
Leanne Morrison
Jesse Morrow
Mariella Navarro
Ricardo Naveira
Neftali Nieves
Robbi O'quinn
Eric Offin
Eric Offin
Angie Olmedo
Jedrek Oquendo
Anibal Pabon
Mariam Padial
Gabriel Padilla
Joaquin Padilla
Luis E. Pagan
Daniel Pane
Javier Enrique Perez
Marcos Pesquera
Andrew Peterson
Misael Rodriguez Quijano
Ana C Ramirez
Diana Roldos Ramos
Elizabeth Redleaf
Kelly Richardson
Manuel Rivera
Oggie Rivera
Ariel Rodriguez
Elba Z Rodriguez
Sylvia Rodriguez
Francisco J Roman
Jerry Romanko
Japhet A Romero
Luis A Rosado
Heriberto Rosas
Mike S Ryan
Kathryn J Schubert
Paul Sebastianelli
Marc Shaiman
Anne Healy Shapiro
Brian Simpson
Jeff Smallcombe
Gianna Sobol
Todd Solondz
Todd Solondz
Steve Speers
Mark Steele
Tim Stipan
Sarah Storbakken
Mike Strickland
Orlando Suarez
Amy Thompson
Jay Tilin
Angela Torres-santini "kuka"
Marsha Trainer
David Trossi
Derrick Tseng
Cerah Tymoshuk
Brian Vancho
Jose R Varona
Sonetchka Velez
Peter Von Grossman
Christine Kunewa Walker
Sebastian Wernke Schmiesing
Mike Whipple
Michael Wiggins
Film Details
Technical Specs
Articles
Life During Wartime - LIFE DURING WARTIME - Todd Solondz's 2010 sequel to the controversial 1998 film Happiness
Solondz's 1998 Happiness is guaranteed to repel unwary viewers. A story of internal despair, its three sisters stumble through terrible relationships and cope with sexual abuse. One sister is married to a pedophile, while the boyfriend of another commits suicide. The movie is almost traumatic to watch, as nobody seems capable of making a good decision or of protecting a loved one. Beyond its sexual frankness, what makes the film so disturbing is its tone of universal misery. It's the blackest of black comedies. There are no easy laughs, but one can't escape the awful absurdity in the sadness and malice.
The characters of Happiness return twelve years later in Life During Wartime but are played by an entirely different cast. The sisters have all left New Jersey. The passive, emotionally frail Joy (Shirley Henderson) works with prisoners but would still like to make a living as a songwriter. Her new husband Allen (Michael Kenneth Williams) hasn't kicked his habit of making obscene phone calls, so she decides to take a break from the relationship. Joy is visited by the 'ghost' of Andy (Paul Reubens), a previous boyfriend who killed himself. The phantom Andy begs her to re-start their relationship. Joy eventually travels West to visit her sister Helen (Ally Sheedy), now a wealthy Hollywood screenwriter. Helen is a control freak with anger management issues; she's cut herself off from the family entirely. Although living in luxury, Helen considers herself a victim. She treats joy with patronizing contempt.
Sister Trish (Allison Janney) is desperate to put her shattered family life in order. Her ex-husband Bill (Ciarán Hinds) has been in prison for years on a charge of pedophilia; her younger children have been told that he is dead. Trish may have found the "normal" life she craves in the dull but dependable Harvey Wiener (Michael Lerner), who isn't attractive but shares her Jewish faith. She's sexually attracted to him simply because he fits her profile of normality. The problem is Trish's terrible parenting judgment. Her small daughter is allowed to monitor her own dosage of Klonopin, a drug used to ward off panic attacks. Her young son Timmy (Dylan Riley Snyder) learns that his father is alive. Frightened and confused, Timmy can't get a coherent answer from his mother about what a pedophile does to children. Meanwhile, Bill has been released from prison, and is determined to find out what has become of his former family. Supposedly reformed, he's still haunted by his old cravings. He pops gumdrops to distract himself from his unforgivable obsession.
Carefully written and performed, Life During Wartime presents a despairing mix of defenseless and repellent characters. Victims like Joy and Trish internalize the bad feelings and run for whatever cover they can find. Abuser Helen seethes with inner anger and insists that she is the unrecognized victim. She doesn't care what psychic damage she inflicts on Joy. Writer Solondz expresses his personal contempt for Hollywood by having Helen engage in furious sex with (an unseen) Keanu Reeves. It's as if the woman is trying to stave off the falseness of her life with nightly inoculations of Movie Star. The masochistic Joy practically sleepwalks through her relationships with men. Andy is a manipulative abuser even as a ghost, and the pathetic Allen seeks absolution for his serious sexual maladjustment issues.
The outwardly composed Trish is actually just as damaged as her sisters. She keeps up her appearance but has clearly not recovered from her shattering experience with Bill. Grasping for a meaningful identity, Trish has decorated her house with tasteful religious items, yet is oblivious to the needs of her children. Her tiny daughter is clearly tripping on her medications. At the dinner table, she asks if "baby carrots feel pain". Timmy is at an age where he's curious about sex, and Trish confuses him by sharing her physical feelings toward Harvey. When Timmy becomes frightened about his father, she evades the boy's frantic questions about pedophiles, and simply tells him to scream and run if any adult man touches him. Trish is unaware that she is passing her fears and anxieties to her children.
Director Solondz presents weak people in appalling circumstances, yet Life During Wartime remains compassionate and committed to its characters. The film is a series of intensely uncomfortable encounters that focus on the hurtful traumas that his characters inflict on each other. He also stylizes many scenes, isolating the characters in their psychological prisons and expressing their inner fantasies in dream sequences. Joy walks through the town in her nightgown in the middle of the night. In Bill's sinister mental visions, a phantom child glows white in an Eden-like garden. Bill has only a couple of dialogue scenes, but both are quite striking. In the first he visits his older son Billy (Chris Marquette) in his college dorm. Bill can barely stand to be with him for more than a minute or two -- he seems afraid that something terrible will happen. In the second, Bill is picked up in a hotel bar by Jacqueline (Charlotte Rampling), an attractive but mature malcontent also consumed by inner rage. The bitter Jacqueline reveals she considers herself a monster, something Bill certainly understands. And monsters should never hope for forgiveness.
Life During Wartime's working title was "Forgiveness", a word that sets it apart from the overpoweringly negative Happiness. Some of the characters, Timmy especially, ponder the meaning of "forgive and forget" and debate whether the two really should go together. The interpersonal disasters continue, but Life During Wartime offers at least the possibility of forgiveness and hope, a represented by an image of Timmy carrying a single flower. The film's final title comes from a Talking Heads song, and critics have pointed out several references in the film to life post-9/11, where America itself seems to be hiding from unpleasant realities. Helen, a Jew, has become a pro-Palestinian zealot. The poorly informed Timmy wants to know if a pedophile is a terrorist.
The Criterion Collection's Blu-ray of Life During Wartime is a beautiful, colorful HD encoding of this strange film. The Florida exteriors (filmed in Puerto Rico) are designed to be deceptively placid. Cameraman Edward Lachman appears in an interview to explain the contrast between the sunny pastel exteriors and the weird, unpleasant hues seen in the darker dramatic scenes. In a selected scene commentary Lachman also discusses the RED camera system and the difference between film and video images. Writer-director Solondz particpates in an audio Q&A session. The new making-of docu Actor's Reflections gathers almost all of the main actors to share the challenges of working on Life During Wartime and contains footage from the film's set. A trailer is included, and Criterion's insert booklet contains an essay by David Sterritt, who pegs Solondz as the "lyric poet of the rejected, the dejected and the clueless".
For more information about Life During Wartime, visit The Criterion Collection. To order Life During Wartime, go to TCM Shopping.
by Glenn Erickson
![Life During Wartime - Life During Wartime - Todd Solondz's 2010 Sequel To The Controversial 1998 Film Happiness](https://prod-images.tcm.com/img/film-participant-detail/Featured-Artilce_Placeholder.png)
Life During Wartime - LIFE DURING WARTIME - Todd Solondz's 2010 sequel to the controversial 1998 film Happiness
Quotes
Trivia
Miscellaneous Notes
Winner of the Osella for Best Screenplay at the 2009 Venice International Film Festival.
Released in United States Summer July 23, 2010
Released in United States July 23, 2010
Released in United States on Video July 26, 2011
Released in United States 2009
Released in United States September 2009
Released in United States 2010
Shown at New York Film Festival September 25-October 11, 2009.
Shown at Venice International Film Festival (Competition) September 2-12, 2009.
Shown at Rotterdam International Film Festival (Spectrum) January 27-February 7, 2010.
Released in United States Summer July 23, 2010
Released in United States July 23, 2010
Shown at Seattle International Film Festival (New American Cinema) May 20-June 13, 2010.
Film is part-sequel, part-variation of and companion piece to "Happiness" (USA/1998) and "Welcome to the Dollhouse" (USA/1995) directed by Todd Solondz.
Released in United States on Video July 26, 2011
Released in United States 2009 (Shown at New York Film Festival September 25-October 11, 2009.)
Released in United States September 2009 (Shown at Telluride Film Festival September 4-7, 2009.)
Released in United States September 2009 (Shown at Venice International Film Festival (Competition) September 2-12, 2009.)
Released in United States 2010 (Shown at Rotterdam International Film Festival (Spectrum) January 27-February 7, 2010. )
Released in United States 2010 (Shown at Seattle International Film Festival (New American Cinema) May 20-June 13, 2010.)