A palindrome is a word, phrase, verse or sentence that reads the same backward or forward. Examples include “Tarzan raised a Desi Arnaz rat,” “Doom an evil deed, liven a mood,” and “Poor Dan is in a droop.” (And after this total downer, I most certainly was.) Palindromes, while occasionally clever, usually don’t make much sense, nor is there any real use for them. And that’s about the best that can be said for writer-director Todd Solondz’s latest film, yet another noxious whiff of suburbia’s armpit courtesy of filmdom’s reigning misanthrope. Just like Solondz’s previous efforts, “Welcome to the Dollhouse,” “Happiness” and “Storytelling,” “Palindromes” treads (far too slowly) along the extreme fringes of an unrelentingly ugly post-modern America or, as it’s also known, New Jersey. Solondz’s world is populated with pedophiles, religious extremists, bad parents, liars, thieves, murderers and other unsavory characters that exist almost solely to underscore the hopeless tragedy that is his doe-eyed protagonist’s journey. Her name is Aviva. She’s 13, and more than anything, she wants to have a baby.
Aviva finds herself with child early on following a precipitous copulation with a cousin, only to have her dream forever dashed when her parents (Ellen Barkin and Richard Masur) force her to have an abortion that leaves her barren. So she runs away and eventually winds up in the care of Mama Sunshine (Debra Monk), a preternaturally chirpy zealot who rescues unwanted children while simultaneously carrying out a much more sinister mission.
Solondz cast eight different actors of varying age, skin color, weight and gender to play Aviva (among them 40-something Jennifer Jason Leigh) presumably to encourage maximum empathy from his audience. Alas, it comes across as nothing but a show-offy trick that makes it all but impossible to connect with the character. That’s unfortunate, because Aviva is the only good thing about the grim “Palindromes.” (Not yet rated. Running time: 100 minutes)
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 15, 2005. Read the original PDF.