Dark Horse

If direc­tor Todd Solondz split audi­ences with Hap­pi­ness back in 1998 and lost those who had stuck by him with 2004’s Palin­dromes, those impressed with the promise of Wel­come to the Doll­house may be grat­i­fied to learn that his newest film, Dark Horse, rep­re­sents more than sim­ply a return to form. Solondz’ own pro­nounce­ments that Life Dur­ing Wartime two years ago would be his last film have, thank­ful­ly, proved unfulfilled.

For Dark Horse, he has dropped the shock mis­an­thropy that increas­ing­ly marked his work for what almost begins as a com­e­dy of man­ners but becomes more hal­lu­ci­na­to­ry. Solondz takes that recent com­ic sta­ple of the over­grown stay-at-home – see also the Duplass­es’ Jeff Who Lives at Home – and cre­ates what could form a com­pan­ion piece to Paul Thomas Anderson’s idio­syn­crat­ic Adam San­dler vehi­cle, Punch-Drunk Love (2002).

Abe (Jor­dan Gel­ber) is still liv­ing with his par­ents in his mid-30s, in a room full of toy col­lectibles, when he meets the heav­i­ly med­icat­ed Miran­da (Sel­ma Blair), who also lives at home. He decides to pur­sue her. ​“I want to want you,” she tells Abe. ​“That’s good enough for me,” he says. If this is Judd Apa­tow ter­ri­to­ry, the­atre actor Gel­ber plays clos­er to John C Reil­ly than Seth Rogen.

Blair may seem per­pet­u­al­ly on the verge of tears but she pulls off the film’s best lines amid a fine ensem­ble cast: Mia Far­row has come out of a semi-retire­ment to play Abe’s moth­er, while Christo­pher Walken, who could still stare down an owl, is Abe’s father – and employ­er. Don­na Mur­phy as the com­pa­ny sec­re­tary stands out, too, play­ing an increas­ing­ly cen­tral role when the delu­sion­al nature behind Abe’s blus­ter is revealed.

Open­ing with a care­ful­ly chore­o­graphed wed­ding scene, Dark Horse is set to an unex­pect­ed­ly upbeat sound­track, right up to the clos­ing ​‘Now is the Time’, from com­mer­cial music pro­duc­er Cur­tis Marolt.