Welcome to the Dollhouse

Everything I've read about this film refers to it as a comedy. Some comedy. It's an almost entirely dark view of life for an 11-year old social misfit. Okay, so there were a few funny moments but they were neither particularly funny nor memorable. There's always the odd laugh on the way to the gallows, but that doesn't make the journey comic. But then I suspect that Welcome to the Dollhouse is meant to be remebered for other things.

The plot meanders through the unpleasant world of Dawn Weiner (Heather Matarazzo) as she suffers at home, suffers at school and almost everywhere else she spends her time too. In fact about the only place she doesn't suffer is inside the Special People Club Hut she built in her parent's garden, and which her parents kindly tear down for their 20th Anniversary garden party. Now that sounds kindof funny, doesn't it? Think again. Dawn's utterly insensitive parents might well be genuinely comic if Dawn were better able to cope with them. But she can't. Imagine if the two comic thugs in Home Alone had actually succeeded in their aim of brutalising the 10-year old. Okay, okay, maybe it would be amusing to watch Macaulay Culkin being tortured to death, but you know what I mean.

The thing is, in eschewing the Hollywood ethic of plot, pace and happy ending, Solondz can hardly complain if things get a little stodgy or unrelentingly depressing at times. Then again, the overall effect is of something far more original, even if a little slow, especially to start with.

If it is intended primarily as a comedy, then it fails, because the lead character is too plausibly dorky and unhappy, and never actually comes to terms with her environment. But as a picture of the sort of life that doesn't see the light of day in normal commercial cinema, it works very well. A deeply flawed movie but one which probably resonated with more people than last year's entire Hollywood crop.

Reviewed by Ben Eveling

FILM FACTS IN BRIEF
Written, directed and produced by Todd Solondz
Starring Heather Matarazzo, Daria Kalinina, Matthew Faber, Anglea Pietropinto, Eric Mabius and Brendan Sexton Jr.
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