Rent Life During Wartime (2009)

Hugely disappointing. - Life During Wartime review by CP Customer

I've grown to be a fan of Todd Solondz's films and although I initially hated it 'Happiness' is now easily one of my favourite films. 'Life During Wartime' is a direct sequel to 'Happiness' set ten years after the events of Solondz's 1998 film, the story follows the lives of sisters Joy, Helen and Trish. Helen has now become a successful screenwriter, Trish is in the first bloom of love with a older man, and Joy now working with ex-offenders is married to a reformed gang member and criminal. While 'Happiness' was a blissfully dark and uncomfortable film its sequel is a far tamer affair. Giving the reason that he thought it would be liberating, Solondz recast the entire film with different actors playing the same characters featured in Happiness. This would have been a nice twist to the film but in reality the new cast is a poor imitation of those featured in the earlier film, Allison Janney in particular looked awkward and wooden as Trish and Shirley Henderson reduced Joy to quite a feeble and weak character; the rest of the cast were also fairly unremarkable. The story was also disappointingly weak, limping along for an hour the story only really came to life in the final 30 minutes. Overall, this really is a lacklustre effort from Todd Solondz which totally lacks the edginess, dark humour, spirit and powerful story of his earlier film and if it wasn't for the fact Solondz name is in the titles I really wouldn't have associated it as one of his films. I really wanted to love this film but compared to his past work it's a real disappointment.