Todd Solondz's ``Happiness'' is a film that perplexes its viewers, even those who admire it, because it challenges the ways we attempt to respond to it. Is it a portrait of desperate human sadness? Then why are we laughing? Is it an ironic comedy? Then why its tenderness with these lonely people? Is it about depravity? Yes, but why does it make us suspect, uneasily, that the depraved are only seeking what we all seek, but with a lack of ordinary moral vision? In a film that looks into the abyss of human despair, there is the horrifying suggestion that these characters may not be grotesque exceptions, but may in fact be part of the mainstream of humanity. Whenever a serial killer or a sex predator is arrested, we turn to the paper to find his neighbors saying that the monster ``seemed just like anyone else.'' ``Happiness'' is a movie about closed doors--apartment doors, bedroom doors and the doors of the unconscious. It moves back and forth between several stories, which often link up. It shows us people who want to be loved and who never will be--because of their emotional incompetence and arrested development. There are lots of people who do find love and fulfillment, but they are not in this movie.
影片让观众们迷惑，即使是导演的影迷也如此，因为我们不知道对这部影片应该做怎样的回应。是一部描写绝望的人们的悲哀的影片吗？那么为什么我们会笑？是一部讽刺性的喜剧吗？那为什么如此细腻地描写这些孤独的人？是关于人的堕落的影片吗？或许是吧，但是为什么它让我们沉重地怀疑那些堕落的人追寻的正是我们所共同追寻的东西，而片中没有丝毫的正常价值观的试点？这样一部探讨人性绝望深渊的影片给了我们一个可怕的提示，片中的这些角色或许不是什么荒诞（grotesque）的特例，而是真实存在在人性的主流中。每当一个连环杀手或者性奴役者被逮捕的时候，我们翻开报纸看都看到他的邻居们说这个恶魔“就和我们没什么区别”。这是一部关于紧闭的门户的影片：公寓的门，卧室的门，潜意识的门。影片游走于几个相关联的故事之间。它向我们展现了那些想要爱和永远得不到爱的人——因为他们情感上的缺失和生理发育不善。有很多人得到了爱，得到了成功，但是他们不在这部电影里。
Why see the film? ``Happiness'' is about its unhappy characters, in a way that helps us see them a little more clearly, to feel sorry for them, and at the same time to see how closely tragedy and farce come together in the messiness of sexuality. Does ``Happiness'' exploit its controversial subjects? Finally, no: It sees them as symptoms of desperation and sadness. It is more exploitative to create a child molester as a convenient villain, as many movies do; by disregarding his humanity and seeing him as an object, such movies do the same thing that a molester does.
那么为什么要看这部电影？它讲述了那些不幸福的人物。讲述的方式让我们看他们看的更清楚，开始同情他们，同时让我们看到悲剧和戏剧相结合的两性之间的乱事。影片是在剖析（exploit）这些具争议性的话题吗？到最后我们发现没有。它把这些东西看作是绝望和悲伤的症状。更加赤裸的剖析，应该就和大多数电影一样，把一个性骚扰儿童者塑造成一个信手拈来的坏蛋（convenient villain）。但是影片把他的人格降级，把他看作一个物体。这种做法无异于一个性骚扰者。
These are the kinds of thoughts ``Happiness'' inspires. It is not a film for most people. It is certainly for adults only. But it shows Todd Solondz as a filmmaker who deserves attention, who hears the unhappiness in the air and seeks its sources.
这就是影片给人带来的启发。这显然不符合大众口味。这必然是儿童不宜。但是这也让人们开始关注Todd这个能够东西生活中的不幸并且寻找它们的根源的导演。
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