Writer / director Todd Solondz has made his
reputation by creating a gallery of suburban
icons of ostracism: think Dawn Wiener from
"Welcome to the Dollhouse," Dr. Maplewood
from "Happiness" and Consuelo from
"Storytelling." In his latest film PALINDROMES,
we find the work of a more mature artist
who is clearly savoring the profound flavor
of moral complexity.

PALINDROMES is a fable of innocence:
13-year-old Aviva Victor wants to be a Mom.
She does all she can to make this happen, and
comes very close to succeeding, but in the end her plan is thwarted by her sensible parents (ELLEN BARKIN and RICHARD MASUR). So she runs away, still determined to get pregnant one way or another, but instead finds herself lost in another world, a less sensible one, perhaps, but one pregnant itself with all sorts of strange possibility. Like so many trips, this one is round-trip, and it's hard to say in the end if she can ever be quite the same again, or if she can ever be anything but the same again.

Barkin, who hasn't seemed so eerily at home as a mother since "This Boy's Life," gives an unyielding performance as a suburban woman trying to protect her daughter from the same suicidal demise of her cousin Dawn Wiener. The film also features jaw-dropping performances from DEBRA MONK, STEPHEN ADLY-GUIRGIS, JENNIFER JASON LEIGH and seven different and equally brilliant, risk-taking actors of different ages, races and sizes to play our young heroine.

We imagine people will be tempted to take the actions by Aviva, her mother, and the adults Aviva meets on her journey as some kind of glib comment on the contemporary American moral landscape, but this would be a mistake. PALINDROMES may be Solondz' most political and philosophical film yet, but in many ways it is also his most tender.

PALINDROMES was an official selection at the 2004 Telluride, Toronto, Venice and New York Film Festivals.