Palindromes

Thirteen-year-old Aviva wants to get pregnant and does. Her parents force an abortion. After the operation she runs away and falls in with a religious family; the house is full of disabled and sick children, everyone sings, and a separate campaign is being run against abortion clinics. The subject is not the abortion argument but both sides speaking with the same certainty. The film vindicates neither the parents nor the religious group; it shows both from the same distance with the same coldness, a choice that leaves it open to attack from either direction. The form is built on its most radical decision: Aviva is played by eight different actors. Their ages, bodies and races differ; in one section she is a small girl, in the next a grown woman. The change is never explained and the character remains the same person throughout. The production connects to Todd Solondz's earlier work: the film opens at the funeral of the main character of Welcome to the Dollhouse, and Aviva is her cousin. Ellen Barkin plays the mother and Jennifer Jason Leigh is one of the Avivas. Who it is for: viewers who like American independent cinema willing to be uncomfortable. Who it is not for: anyone the subject will strain; the film softens for nobody.