In his
New York Times review A. O. Scott compared the character of Abe (Justin Gelber) in Todd Solondz’s
Dark Horse to
Willy Loman. Actually a
better comparison might be Strindberg and characters like
Miss Julie who are
trapped by everything they are biologically, sociologically and
morphologically. The title of the movie comes from Abe’s position in his
family. Still in his 30’s he’s an overweight college dropout who lives at home
and works in the family business. His father Jackie (Christopher Walken) is a
narcoleptic suburban realtor who is constantly demanding spread sheets. One
long shot of Jackie going over rent rolls with his visionless mercantilism paints a character that is about as about as
far from Gary Cooper’s portrait of the architect Howard Roark in
The Fountainhead as it’s possible to
get. Abe’s mother Phyllis (Mia Farrow) preens over him and apologizes for his
ineptitude while offering a rather dire prognosis of his prospects. His older
brother Richard (Justin Bartha) is a successful doctor in a competitive Jewish
family—in other words everything he is not. Richard is gay and Abe blames his
brother for having abandoned him ten years before for having gone off to Fire
Island instead of accompanying him on a cross country trip. Solondz’s family is
garish, but there is also a tenderness to the portrayal. Abe is
trapped in himself and the victim of a confluence of factors that transcend
just bourgeois values. There are all kinds of brilliant touches in the film. One of
Abe’s first lines to Miranda (Selma Blair), the catatonic woman he proposes to
after one date, is “I never dance. It’s not my thing.” It’s all down hill from
there. “I want to want you,” she tells him later in the movie. “That’s enough
for me,” Abe enthusiastically responds. Abe’s signature vehicle a Hummer and he gets into a fight in a
store, whose Toys "R"Us logo is intentionally blurred (one would suppose
that the toy chain didn’t want their logo associated with the production), when
he tries to return a scratched action figure. As Abe’s life finally implodes
entirely, the movie turns from Strindbergian determinism to Walter Mitty like
fantasy.
Dark Horse is a mess that gives a new meaning to the word mordant, but
outrageously funny too. One wouldn’t be surprised to find Solondz transforming the
scene of Oedipus with his eyes plucked out into a sequel to
Animal House. Tragedy turned to farce.
That’s the unique and sometimes frigid sensibility at work.
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