Palindromes is the latest film from writer-director Todd Solondz, previously known for the dark, uncompromising Happiness, Storytelling, and Welcome to the Dollhouse. Solondz has a talent for exposing the underbelly of middle-class life using average characters who seem undistinguished in any way. In fact, none of his characters could ever be described as a "winner" -- they are intriguing because of the incredible banality of their lives and because they are everywhere. They are the people who live next door or down the street, and the secret lives they live are very disturbing.

The central character in this narrative is a young girl, Aviva, who becomes pregnant and is forced by her parents to have an abortion. What follows is the sequence of events as Aviva tries to deal with the outcome of giving in to her parents’ wishes. Feeling emptiness and guilt, she briefly runs away from home and meets several characters along the way who either help her, take advantage of her, or both. What makes Solondz’s telling of this story fascinating is that while Aviva ages no more than a few years from this film’s beginning to its end, the director has cast eight different actors to play the role. One finds oneself changing and reacting differently to Aviva depending on the physical appearance of the actor playing the role.

Aviva’s mother is played by Ellen Barkin, her father by Richard Masur, neither of whom has been seen in a prominent film for some time. Barkin gives a strong, impassioned performance as a mother who wants her child to have a normal childhood, while Masur is the typical father who blames the boy for his daughter’s predicament.

Palindromes takes no position for or against abortion, but presents the subject from the viewpoints of the various characters. It’s up to viewers to make of it what they will. The audience may find it more difficult to take sides in this debate, because those characters whom one might stereotypically consider bad later on appear to be good, while those who are overtly good do evil. There are no easy answers here. Still, Solondz does hit you over the head at the end of the film in a speech by one of the losers in the story. Whether the ideas expressed represent Solondz’s view of the world or are simply those of this character is for the audience to decide. My vote is that they belong to Solondz.

Palindromes is not for everyone, but it will be enjoyable to those who relish seeing the darker side of suburban life.

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