Dark Horse

While writer-director Todd Solondz doesn't abandon his characteristic harsh assessment of human nature in this edgy comedy, he does add a drop of sympathy (or pity) to the usual uncompromising bleakness. Abe (Jordan Gelber) is a pudgy, socially awkward thirtysomething man-child who lives with his parents—real estate manager Jackie (Christopher Walken) and doting enabler Phyllis (Mia Farrow). Abe has a job in Jackie's office, but spends most of his time shirking his duties and buying action figures online. Abe strives (ineptly) to be charming, but he's given to sudden fits of rage at what he perceives as the world's unfairness. A glimmer of hope appears in Miranda (Selma Blair), a gloomy young woman Abe meets at a wedding reception. Despite Abe's alternately pushy and needy nature, Miranda hesitantly accepts his blundering overtures. Meanwhile, Abe begins to suffer from hallucinations that are indistinguishable from reality (and the viewer shares Abe's inability to tell what is actually occurring from what is a figment of his rabid imaginings). Although it failed to attract much box office business beyond Solondz's cadre of followers, Dark Horse turns out to be a surprisingly moving, if characteristically odd, addition to the filmmaker's oeuvre. Recommended. (F. Swietek)