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Joyce Victor: Am I terrible mother?
'Mark' Aviva Victor: Everybody makes mistakes...
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Mark Wiener: People always end up the way they started out. No one ever changes. They think they do but they don't. If you're the depressed type now that's the way you'll always be. If you're the mindless happy type now, that's the way you'll be when you grow up. You might lose some weight, your face may clear up, get a body tan, breast enlargement, a sex change, it makes no difference. Essentially, from in front, from behind. Whether you're 13 or 50, you will always be the same.
'Mark' Aviva Victor: Are you the same?
Mark Wiener: Yeah.
'Mark' Aviva Victor: Are you glad you're the same?
Mark Wiener: It doesn't matter if I'm glad. There's no freewill. I mean, I have no choice but to chose what I choose, to do as I do, to live as I live. Ultimately, we're all just robots programmed abritrarily by nature's genetic code
'Mark' Aviva Victor: Isn't there any hope?
Mark Wiener: For what? We hope or despair because of the way we've been programmed. Genes and randomness, that's all there is and none of it matters.
'Mark' Aviva Victor: Does that mean you're never going get married and have children?
Mark Wiener: I have no anent desire to get married or have kids. But that's beyond my control. Really, it makes no difference. Since the planet's fast running out of natural resources and we won't make it into the next century.
'Mark' Aviva Victor: What if you're wrong? What if there is a God?
Mark Wiener: That makes me feel better.
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'Dawn' Aviva Victor: I want to have lots and lots of babies so that way I will always have someone to love.
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Skippy: My name is skippy just like the peanut butter!
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'Mark' Aviva Victor: I know. I believe you because pedophiles love children.
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Joyce Victor: [Talking about Aviva's unborn fetus] It's not a baby. It's just a tumor.
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Mark Wiener: People always end up the way they started out. No one ever changes. They think they do, but they don't. If you're the depressed type now, that's the way you'll always be. If you're the mindless, happy type, that's the way you'll be when you grow up. You might lose some weight, your face might clear up, get a body tan, a breast enlargement, a sex change - makes no difference. Essentially... from in front, or from behind... whether you're thirteen or fifty, you'll always be the same.
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Description
Palindromes is a fable of innocence: 13-year old Aviva Victor wants to be a mom. She does all that she can to make this happen, and comes very close to succeeding, but in the end, her plan is thwarted by her sensible parents (Ellen Barkin and Richard Masur). So she runs away, still determined to get pregnant one way or another, but instead finds herself lost in another world, a less sensible one, perhaps, but one pregnant itself with all sorts of strange possibility. Like so many trips, this one is round-trip, and it's hard to say in the end if she can ever be quite the same again, or she can ever be anything but the same again. Palindromes features an all-star supporting cast including Debra Monk, Stephen Adly-Guirgis, Jennifer Jason Leigh and seven different and equally brilliant, risk-taking actors of different ages, races and sizes to play the young heroine. Acclaimed writer/director Todd Solondz (Welcome to the Dollhouse, Happiness, Storytelling) once again presents a film of moral complexity, and while this may be his most political and philosophical film yet, it is, in many ways, his most tender.
Amazon.com
Writer/director Todd Solondz has no patience for formulas or safe choices. Most filmmakers, after making a movie as commercially unsuccessful and critically slammed as the underrated Storytelling, would strive to broaden their appeal. Solondz, instead, made Palindromes, a movie about a troubled young girl named Aviva whose only goal in life is to have children--a goal that leads her through abortion, religious extremism, pedophilia, and more. But for many viewers, the plot isn't as off-putting as the casting: Over the course of the movie, Aviva is played by eight very different actresses (including Jennifer Jason Leigh, Rush). Like Solondz's other movies (including Welcome to the Dollhouse and Happiness), Palindromes initially seems emotionally brutal and absurd, but gradually grows engaging and even moving, albeit in strange and unexpected ways. Palindromes is given an extra boost by a hypnotic, emotionally unleashed performance by Ellen Barkin (The Big Easy, Drop Dead Gorgeous) as Aviva's mother. --Bret Fetzer
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