An Exercise In Nonsense

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

I rarely comment on movies on IMDb but there are a few that I remember for all the wrong reasons. When I see they have a really high star rating I feel compelled to weigh in. I usually agree with IMDb's assessment (with the exception of "bad" horror films which I enjoy). The movie starts out with an interesting premise but it is a bit gratuitous and I would say a bit exploitative of the 13 year old character in this movie. It almost struck me as a film that was written by a pedophile. This movie was depressing and depicted a heck of a lot of depravity and even pedophilia. I love film noir, love gritty grindhouse films and stuff like that. This is VERY different from that. I got itchy watching it and as a parent, I was revolted with the sexual depiction of the young girl in this. I understand reality in films but this was just going too far to be enjoyable in my opinion. I was not entertained.

Thirteen year old Aviva has a simple, naive dream of having lots of babies so that she always has someone to love and to be loved by. However when this ambition is realised in her first sexual encounter with a neighbour's son, her parents convince her to have an abortion. As a result Aviva runs away to find a better world and become happy there. What she finds though is a country that doesn't correspond with her good-natured and cheerful view of how life should be.I'll be honest and say that Palindromes sat on my HDR for ages waiting for me to be in the mood for Todd Solondz's view of the world. Ironically here he takes his subject as an naive (rather than "innocent") teenage girl, who is trusting and accepting of what she finds – these are the eyes that we see the world through, I imagine with the aim of letting what/who she sees hanging themselves by their words and actions. In this way he delivers a film that in theory should be a searing judgement on Middle America's religious ideals, ideas of "happiness" and so on, but in reality he doesn't manage it. There are flashes of cutting comment but mostly his targets are too easy or are gone after in a clumsy, rather mocking fashion that means it is a lot less insightful and intelligent than I would have liked.The delivery of these means it is still engaging. The device of using different actresses of ages, shapes and colours to portray the same teenage girl in different scenes is an interesting one that does stand out for being "different" but it is not as meaningful to me as others have said that it was for them. Horses for courses I suspect but for me it didn't seem to be used that well within the film and as result just comes across as different for the sake of being different. Credit to the actresses playing the part though, all of whom I though did very well (apart from the little girl, who was just annoying).Palindromes is a strange beast that is interesting to watch but nowhere near good enough to really love. Some viewers I'm sure will find much to love in the novelty and imagination involved in it but the killer for me was that it just wasn't smart or cutting enough. Absolutely worth seeing once just because whatever else he is, Solondz is never dull.

A girl named Aviva (that's apalindrome, hence the title) who is a 13-year-old that really wants toget pregnant, because then she'd never have to be lonely. (Aviva is played by several different actresses, many of which are not 13, which makes things a tad bit confusing.) She gets what she wants, only to have her mom tell her there's no way she can keep her child. The mother forces her to get an abortion, which ends up being botched. While Aviva is half-sedated, she hears that she can never get pregnant again. After the abortion she runs away.She ends up in the truck of a dude who turns out to be a pedophile. They have sex at a hotel. Dude ditches her the next day. She wanders around in a forest and falls asleep, only to be awoken by a little boy. He takes her back to Mama Sunshine's house, where she stays for a few days. Mama Sunshine is a Christian who raises all sorts of kids with problems that no one else seems to want. These kids make money by selling CDs and videos of themselves singing and dancing to songs about Jesus.Guess who lives in a trailer next door? The pedophile. Apparently Papa Sunshine is contracting him to kill an abortion doctor–the same one who did Aviva's abortion! Aviva runs away from the Sunshine's and sleeps on the steps of the trailer until the pedophile agrees to bring her with. He kills the doctor, and the doctor's young daughter accidentally. He ends up being killed by the police in a hotel. Aviva goes home and her parents throw a party.The writer is probably struggling with his own views on abortion. The strong pro-lifers are portrayed as crazy and weird. At the same time, they're loving and accepting of all sorts of children–even children that the pro-choicers might think should've been aborted. Aviva's mother talks about how, if she hadn't had an abortion herself, they wouldn't be able to afford NSync tickets, or cartons of Ben and Jerry's. She also tells Aviva that a deformed child will ruin the rest of her life and rob her of experiences. It seems that Solondz shows the flaws of both sides of the abortion issue. The pedophile theme, however, reduced any value I saw in the movie. What the point was, I'm not sure. That pedophiles are good people? That they can't always be blamed for what they do? The pedophile in this movie doesn't seek out a child to prey on. Aviva just shows up in his truck. He doesn't even try to lure her into agreeing to sex, she wants sex, because she wants pregnancy. At the end, one character says that he's not a pedophile, and Aviva says "Yes, because they love children." Hm. What? So pedophiles just love children so much that they want to have sex with them? Are we supposed to be happy that they love children so much? Sorry that they carry this burden of having to hide and repress that love? Maybe he's trying to show that the girl's liberal parents and the conservative family that takes her in are just as exploitative as the pedophile who has anal sex with her. Forcing a girl to have an abortion is bad. Forcing a girl to repress her sexuality and only showing her love if she adheres to your ultra-conservatives standards is bad too. But I don't think either come anywhere close to anally raping a girl (and in this country, regardless of consent, if the girl is 13 it is rape). I try to view it in different ways, but this movie really seems to stand as an argument for pedophilia. Not that it is a good thing, but perhaps that it isn't any worse than all the other things people to do children. All pro-life folks and probably a good chunk of the pro-choice folks who see this would think it was wrong for Aviva's mother to not allow her to have her child. I guess from there, the argument is, if she can choose whether or not have a child, should she not be able to choose who she has sex with? Even if the person she wants to have sex with his older? At the end of the movie one character talks about how people do not change. If you're depressed when you're ten, you're going to be depressed your whole life. I don't agree with that, but I have heard it said for pedophiles. You like what you like. You don't stop being attracted to children, you just learn not to act on it. Is that what the point of that little "no one changes" rant was? I don't know.Overall I was not a huge fan of this movie. Parts of it were funny. Parts of it were thought-provoking. The palindrome-theme was kind of neat (In order, Aviva is living with her parents and sleeping with a guy her age, running away and being with a pedophile, staying with the Sunshines, running away and being with a pedophile, and living with her parents and sleeping with a guy her age.) I'll admit that. But it's hard to like something that appears to defend pedophiles. And if that wasn't his aim, then I have to think his aim was to be shocking, to get attention, to get people to say "I can't believe he did that." And being shocking for the sake of being shocking isn't something I admire either. It's really just a shortcut to getting attention, a replacement for doing something meaningful.If you've seen Solondz's other movies and liked them, then you might want to see this. If you haven't seen them, I recommend checking them out first before diving into this one. Also, this one is a loose continuation of Welcome to the Dollhouse, so maybe watch them both back-to-back.

I am beginning to wonder at this point if Todd Solondz is himself a pedophile. But don't get me wrong; if he is then he at least understands whats wrong with it and at the same time he understands people, both victims and perpetrators. I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and say that he is in fact not a pedophile and this is somewhat supported by the Mark Weiner character who for all intents and purposes may as well be Todd Solondz himself. Mark Weiner in a moment of what I believe to be total honesty declares to the Aviva character that he is in fact not a pedophile. It would have been safe enough for him to admit to her that he is a pedophile if he is. You'll have to watch the film to understand why. I was totally blown away by the film and actually watched it twice in a row because I needed to understand it more thoroughly. I highly recommend it for anyone who is a Todd Solondz fan and also for David Lynch fans as well. I'm not sure what to make of his portrayal of the Christian family, the Sunshines. I think it shows both the good and bad of the Christian right in America. I actually did spend sometime being good friends with a very similar family and eventually had to cut my ties with them after their illusion of Christian family bliss was shattered by the wife/mother's sexual advances toward me. An additional group of people I would recommend this film to is current or former right-wing Christians who are questioning their faith. This is where I come from and the movie definitely resonated with me because of that. I also appreciate Solondz' brave study of abortion. One could almost see it as a pro-life movie if it weren't for the fact that most pro-lifers would probably be horrified by it. I'm of the rare-breed that is a pro-lifer but not over-sensitive to controversial media. Still I would not say that this film proves Solondz' to be pro-life, rather it probably shows that to him the subject can never be completely black or white, which of course is a very wise and healthy viewpoint to have. Great job Todd Solondz!