Happiness: Seeking happiness in social awkwardness

Human beings are known as social animals. In the animal kingdom, humans are the only known animal which has a need to form and live in a society with the fellowship of other humans. Humans, as they are, are not meant to live alone and find it extremely difficult to be isolated from their own kind. The whole notion of living in a society is human in origin and cannot be seen to be perfectly replicated by any other form of animal.

Joy is a hapless 30 something spinster who has a hopeless love life and no stable career. She is flanked by two sisters who are successful in their own life in different ways; Trish is a happily married mother of two children while Helen is an established author. Both her sisters serve as constant reminders of what her life could be and what it currently lacks at a time when she breaks off ties with one of her dates and decides to move into a new profession. Joy and her sisters are unaware of small problems in their family which suddenly start to rise as they realise they do not have a perfect world. Bill, Trish’s psychiatrist husband, has a secret paedophilic obsession for teenage boys. He has his eye on his elder son’s best friend and his unnatural passion leads to problems in his family. Allen is Helen’s obese and unattractive neighbour who has perverted tendencies; one of which is to violently lay a sexual assault on Helen. As he faces up to facts and feelings, he finds himself in between tracks in his life. Joy’s father has a late midlife crisis during which he decides to separate from his wife without divorcing her. All these small problems leave Joy’s family stranded as they try to keep up appearances and remain the ideal happy family.

The film is an absolutely brilliant work of art. It shows human relations in a raw and unnatural manner as it portrays individual characters working towards attaining their own idea of happiness. The main focus of the film is to show how people go astray in their pursuit of happiness and their own pleasures which may not be on the same plane as those around them. The film has several undertones of social standings as it portrays the relationships between its different characters. It especially puts forth the awkwardness in social situations.

There is some or the other meaning to be found in each scene of the film. Whether it is down to playing the awkward silences during a breakup in a public setting or the dialogue delivery in the weird conversations between a father and son as they discuss masturbation, there is a keen focus on showing the clumsiness that is experienced in everyday social situations. The film proves its quality in certain scenes as it is able to construct the emotion and feeling for the audience without the gross overuse of a background score. The film is able to draw its audience in and make them feel sympathetic for the characters in spite of the fact that the characters are in horrible positions which are mostly of their own doing.

Writer and director Todd Solondz managed to pull off a brilliant job with this film with the aid of a minimal budget and a star cast. The film really makes the audience think as they put their feet into the shoes of the characters in each awkward situation. It is a must watch film which has a mild shock value but ends up being quite a good watch.