PALINDROMES

USA. Directed by Todd Solondz, 2004.

Date: Sep 24th, 2005. Format: Film. Surrounding: Niagara, Tampere.

I happened to see this a few hours after I was visiting an opening of the art exhibition of my friend in Taidekeskus Mältinranta. It was sort of triple bill in the museum; there were works of two other artists too. Earlier this year, on Jan 7th, I paid a visit to an opening of the exhibition of this same artist as well. It was in a gallery ran by my other friend, but it doesn't exist anymore. A lot of other things have changed after that as well. That night in the beginning of the year led to a good thing for me, because after we had drunk in bars with the gallery owner, I ended up in a magical follow-up party. After that event began a both confusing and beautiful springtime, but that's another story. This was quite an exceptional night too; before, after and in the exhibition I met many of the girls whom I sometimes, years ago, had some little thing going on with. I was quite surprised about this and thinking, does this have some kind of meaning? Why do they all pop up to me now? So, Palindromes, as a teenage flick for adults, was a kind of exact film to watch in a day like this. I adore Solondz's way to deal with banal people and their weaknesses so peacefully and without irony. Of course it seems like irony but when we look deeper into his characters, it isn't. He cares of them. This is not a masterpiece, though. There are too many poor scenes. But the weird idea to use 12 different-aged actresses in the main role, a 13-year old girl who wants to get pregnant, works surprisingly - or should I say brechtingly - well. When Jennifer Jason Leigh watches almost straight to camera, and she has a line: "Pedophiles love children", it seems she might be thinking, that oh my god, what am I saying! ****