Welcome to the Dollhouse

Beyond Home Entertainment

R4 DVD

Todd Solondz is an American screenwriter and indie film director. His work though considered comedy; is in a dark style, marked by cynicism and sarcasm and is usually provocative and socially aware. All of his movies examine the dysfunction that exists under the radar of middle class life and use potentially shocking themes to great effect.

Prior to Welcome to the Dollhouse, Solondz’ first film was Fear, Anxiety and Depression (1989), which while challenging in content was not especially successful. Solondz has many clashes with the studio over the adaptation of his screenplay to the big screen and it wasn’t until 1995 that he was willing to make another film.

Welcome to the Dollhouse is a bleak and venomous look at life in 7th grade. It focuses on Dawn Wiener (Heather Matarazzo), a young and somewhat awkward girl who is trying to find her place in life. She is teased and abused at school and degraded at home, her parents preferring her prettier ballerina sister.

Her older brother, Mark is only concerned with getting into college and is neurotic and nerdy. Her mother is clearly the head of the family and the father acquiesces in any argument. It is a perfect portrayal of middle class dysfunction.

Dawn finds herself in constant trouble, whenever she tries to defend herself at school, she finds herself the target of the teachers attention, it seems they don’t like her much either. Solondz portrays her as a likeable character driven to the edge of neurosis by a lack of affection and understanding. Dawn strikes up a strange friendship with Brandon, the school dropkick. His home life is a shambles, his brother is intellectually disabled and finally Brandon is accused of selling drugs and he runs away from home to avoid reform school. Again Brandon is portrayed in a sympathetic way, he is clearly a troubled teen, even threatening to rape Dawn, yet underneath they are both rather lost.

The story is further developed with Dawn’s obsession with Steve Rodgers. A long haired Nick Cave lookalike, who while pandering to Dawn’s affection, steals money from their home and finally degrades her. All the characters in Dollhouse are “damaged goods” and the world created is a sad and lonely one, while we may prefer not to admit it, it has a strong ring of truth to its portrayal of relationships and family life.

The climax of the film is when Missy goes missing. Dawn is asked to tell Missy to get a ride home after ballet practice, she deliberately destroys the note. Missy is kidnapped and kept in a neighbors basement watching TV and eating McDonalds and being forced to do pirouettes to satisfy her captors ballet fetish ! Her tutu is found in New York so Dawn runs away to try and find her, but nobody really notices or cares she is gone. When Missy is found unharmed, she again becomes the focus of the family’s life and Dawn is left ignored and on the peripheral - where she has been all along.

In the last scene, we see Dawn reluctantly going on a school holiday to Disney World. Everyone on the bus is singing on the way there, and Dawn reluctantly joins in as the film ends on her solo voice, she has finally given up.

Solondz went on to make Happiness which took many of the themes explored in far more explicit detail and within the explosive context of sexual abuse. In 2004, Solondz made a sequel to Dollhouse in Palindromes. It begins with "In Loving Memory of Dawn Wiener," and opens with her funeral, revealing that Dawn went to college, put on weight and committed suicide.

Welcome to the Dollhouse won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival but was only a limited success at the box office. Which is a shame, I consider it rather underrated.

It is a strange comedy; dark, bitter and at times vicious, it portrays a very dysfunctional world filled with neurosis and emotional pain. There are laughs and humour along the way but at times I wonder if we are actually laughing more in discomfort than in joy ! At the same time it is a meaningful film filled with superb performances, a perverse plot and scenes which will stay with you for quite some time.

Reviews appear on the Synergy website with a single cover image. In the digital and print edition, reviews appear with multiple images. We recommend you download the free digital edition (or buy the print edition) to get the most from Synergy Magazine.

This review will appear in Volume 2 No.4 (2009) of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.

If you came to this page directly (and missed our menu), click here to go to the front page of Synergy Magazine Website or click the following link http://www.synergy-magazine.com