Life During Wartime
In writer and director Todd Solondz’s part sequel/part variation on his acclaimed film Happiness, three sisters and the people they love struggle to find their places in an unpredictable and volatile world where the past haunts the present and imperils the future.
The question of forgiveness and its limits threads throughout a series of intersecting love stories, offering clarity and, perhaps, alternatives to the comforts of forgetting.
Ten years have passed since a series of shocking and catastrophic revelations shattered the world of the Jordan family.
Now, ghosts circle and loom, trouble and console as Joy (Shirley Henderson) discovers her husband Allen (Michael Kenneth Williams) is not quite cured of his peculiar 'affliction' and runs away to seek solace and guidance from her mother and sisters.
She is pursued by visions of her former suitor Andy (Paul Reubens), now deceased, who nonetheless continues his efforts to win her heart.
Joy’s family members are each embroiled in their own unique dilemmas. Her sister Trish (Allison Janney) is rebuilding a life with her children after learning her psychiatrist husband was abusing young boys.
She meets Harvey (Michael Lerner), a lonely divorced man on the cusp of retirement, and hopes that a new male presence in the house will bring stability to her fragile family.
Helen (Ally Sheedy), the third sister, feels victimized by both her family and her Hollywood success, while their mother Mona (Renée Taylor) can’t let go of her bitterness about men.
Meanwhile, Harvey’s son Mark (Rich Pecci) struggles with social isolation and profound pessimism. Bill (Ciáran Hinds), Trish’s former husband, has just been released from prison and is on a quest to reconnect with his older son Billy (Chris Marquette), but not before finding a moment of comfort with Jacqueline (Charlotte Rampling), a needy woman who forgoes caution in her desperate search for love.
And Trish and Bill’s younger son Timmy (Dylan Riley Snyder) faces the transition to manhood by attempting to make sense of newfound revelations about his childhood.
As these characters and storylines dovetail, expand and collide, they create an emotionally resonant portrait of prisoners of love and life.
Alternately hilarious and tragic, outrageous and poignant, Life During Wartime is an audacious comedy with unexpected resonance.
A Werc Werk Works production, Life During Wartime stars Shirley Henderson, Ciáran Hinds, Emma Hinz, Allison Janney, Michael Lerner, Chris Marquette, Rich Pecci, Charlotte Rampling, Paul Reubens, Ally Sheedy, Dylan Riley Snyder, Renée Taylor and Michael Kenneth Williams.
Director of photography is Edward Lachman, A.S.C. and editor is Kevin Messman. Costume designer is Catherine George. Production designer is Roshelle Berliner. The film is produced by Christine Kunewa Walker and Derrick Tseng.