Enfant terrible Todd Solondz finally grows up with “Life During Wartime,” which abandons the sopho moric shock-for-shock’s-sake rut he fell into after a pair of remarkable debut features that seemed to announce a major directing talent.
In fact, characters from both those movies, “Welcome to the Dollhouse” and “Happiness,” reappear in Solondz’s new film, though played by different actors in a story that takes place about a decade later.
It all more or less revolves around Timmy (Dylan Riley Snyder), who is preparing for his bar mitzvah and believes his father has long been dead.
One day Timmy is shocked to learn from a classmate that not only is dad alive, but he has been in jail for having sex with his older brother Billy’s underage friends.
Their mother Trish (Allison Janney), unaware that her ex, Bill (Ciaran Hinds), is out of prison and trying to reconnect with college student Billy (Chris Marquette), responds to Timmy’s questions in ways that are totally inappropriate.
Trish, who has moved the family from New Jersey to Florida, is also worried about how her sons will respond to Harvey (Michael Lerner), a mensch on the verge of retirement who’s planning to move in with her.
Meanwhile, one of her sisters has already arrived for the bar mitzvah — the ironically named Joy (Shirley Henderson), who is fleeing her “pervert” husband (Michael Kenneth Williams) and the ghost of a suitor (a wonderfully creepy Paul Reubens) who killed himself.
The third sister is Helen, a successful Hollywood screenwriter played by erstwhile Brat Pack queen Ally Sheedy in a one-scene tour de force.
Also standing out in this first-rate cast are Rich Pecci as Harvey’s smart but socially maladroit son, and Charlotte Rampling as a bluntly honest woman with whom Bill has a one-night stand.
Though there are references to the Bush administration and Middle East politics, “Life During Wartime” isn’t as overtly political as you might think.
While it obviously isn’t for all tastes, this is a big, thematically rich step forward — mostly it’s about tolerance and forgiveness — from the empty provocation of Solondz’s “Storytelling” and “Palindromes.” About time.