Powerful and Disturbing

Rating: 8/10 (28 October 1999)

This is the darkest of dark comedies, and part of the humor is how the viewer is pulled in and dragged down with the characters. At first, the film seems quirky but funny, with Kevin Spacey and Annette Benning playing a disfunctional but almost cartoon-like suburban couple with a rebellious child. Nothing new there, right? Well, soon it becomes obvious that there is a lot more to it than that, and we are pulled along by a fantastic script as the conflicts emerge. I have never before witnessed such a beautifully accurate portrayal of modern dilemmas. Like much of the 1990's, this film is in-your-face and has no compassion for the light-hearted. Homosexuality, young lust, identity crises, bigots and power-mongers seeth through the film, tearing apart two families and leaving no pure hero, and no obvious villain. We are allowed to see both sides of all characters, and so instead of caricatures, we see real human beings, and so the tragedy of it all hits even harder.